Commercial Architecture July 2018 - 24

PROJECT

hvac & plumbing
system approach, and it's almost a necessity on a building this size,"
said Clark. "Because of the building's proportions, the sheer size of
equipment, piping, and ductwork [in a conventional design], would
have simply been prohibitive. The systems act independently of one
another, just as the respective portions of the building do."
The school-and the systems that serve it-was designed as four
different areas, each with a specific task. Locker rooms, gymnasiums,
classrooms, administrative offices, laboratories, kitchens and cafeterias all have very different loads and ventilation needs. Within the
building, these are all arranged in a sensible fashion with regard to
student traffic and mechanical-system design.
On the plumbing side, a localized approach to supplying domestic
hot water (DHW) was used. There are four mechanical rooms that
feature DHW equipment. At each of these locations, two eF Series
commercial water heaters are installed. The heaters were manufactured by Bradford White, Ambler, PA (bradfordwhite.com).
Because of proximity to the locker rooms, the mechanical rooms
that serve areas one and three each have two, 300-MBH water heaters,
while the mechanical rooms that serve areas two and four have a pair
of 199-MBH tanks. All eight of the units have a 100-gal. capacity.
The commercial water heaters offer thermal efficiencies between
92% and 99%, courtesy of a three-pass heat exchanger and a better
recovery rate than conventional BTU/hr. input models.
To maintain immediate availability of hot water at all fixtures,
Mielke plumbers installed dedicated hot-water recirculation lines,
along with Taco pumps (Taco Comfort Solutions Inc., Cranston, RI,
tacocomfort.com) and Symmons mixing valves (Symmons Industries
Inc., Braintree, MA, symmons.com).
Cooling capacity is provided by two, 300-ton Trane, Davidson,
NC (trane.com), chillers on the roof. Three condensing boilers-two
6,000-MBH units and one 2,000-MBH unit-are used to supply hot
water for the building's hydronic system.
Rooftop air handlers are used in conjunction with VAV boxes and
fan-coil units to provide individual room conditioning. The air handlers also feature an ERV wheel for cost-effective ventilation. Trane
controls were used for the entire HVAC project.
The mechanical systems will provide efficient operation for years
to come and is designed to simplify service work. ICON was proud to
turn the building over to the school district on time and on budget,
offering district maintenance crews more than a month before school
started to acclimate to the new facility and the systems that serve it. CA

The seven plumbing mechanical rooms at
the Ridgeville school each feature Bradford White eF Series commercial water
heaters.

was critical. Changing the size and shape of ductwork was necessary
to make all the components fit in the tightened overhead space. Fortunately, the HVAC- and plumbing-system designs proved flexible
enough to allow the alteration without major changes in equipment or
the allotted time schedule.
DESIGN PROVIDES FLEXIBILITY

The challenge of fitting the HVAC and plumbing components into
a smaller space was aided by the fact that Verostko and Mielke ex-

Want more information?
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commercialarchitecturemagazine.com/1807bradford.

Circle 2 on the Reader Service Card.
Specify water heaters with the eF Series calculator.

perts used a compartmentalized approach to equipment installation.
Rather than a single, large mechanical space, they designed seven
mechanical rooms, all serving different portions of the school.
"We've really grown to like the numerous mechanical and plumbing
24

COMMERCI A L A RCHI T EC T URE

JULY 2018

commercialarchitecturemagazine.com

Specify Taco pumps and hydronics systems.

http://www.bradfordwhite.com http://www.tacocomfort.com http://www.symmons.com http://www.trane.com http://www.commercialarchitecturemagazine.com/1807bradford http://www.commercialarchitecturemagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Commercial Architecture July 2018