Depth: Combined Heating, Power and Cooling
The redesign of the mechanical system at Father O'Connell Hall will analyze the addition of a combined heating, power and cooling system. Onsite generation can be very efficient and greatly reduce overall air emissions. Father O'Connell Hall is an ideal building for this system because of the low simultaneous heating and cooling loads on the building. CHPC systems can be very expensive so a cost analysis will also be done.

Breadth 1: Electrical

With the addition of a micro turbine, several electrical breadths are available for analysis. An investigation will be done to see how much electrical power can be generated by the CHP system. This cannot be determined until the thermal load is confirmed. An analysis will be done to determined how much of the electrical load can be met. An investigation of emergency power will also be done. The current emergency power has a 150 KW generator that is connected to three emergency panels using automatic transfer switches. An analysis of removing this generator and connecting the micro turbine to emergency power will be done. This could greatly reduce capital cost and allow for a faster payback time. A one line riser diagram will be done to show connections. Furthermore, with the addition of an absorption chiller rather than the current electric air cooled chiller, the electrical load will be reduced significantly. Therefore, investigation to reduce the main switchboard size will be done. All new wire and conduit sizes will also be calculated.

Breadth 2: Acoustical

Father O’Connell Hall is an administrative office building for The Catholic University of America, so acoustical considerations are very important for occupants to be comfortable and productive. An investigation will be done to see if the walls meet proper Sound Transmission Coefficients (STC) between mechanical rooms and occupied spaces, primarily AHU-4 and OAHU-1. AHU-4 is located in the basement mechanical room directly next to and office space. OAHU-1 is located on floor 3 directly adjacent to an executive office. Vibrations also have potential of going into the structure and causing disruptions to the floor below. If the walls do not meet American National Standards Institute (ANSI) STC requirements then recommendations will be made to improve the wall acoustics or reduce the mechanical systems noise, whichever is most cost effective. Dynasonics AIM software will be used to calculate noise from the air handling units and through the ducts.