Devon Energy Tower is a 50-story high rise office building, with a 6-story Podium, and 6-story Rotunda comprising of approximately 1.8 million square feet of space. Each tower office floor is approximately 26,000 square feet with each being served by (3) three custom, dual path, multi-zone air handling units. The perimeter heating/cooling system consists of above-ceiling sheet metal duct with electric duct heaters connected to slot diffusers for each zone. The interior floor spaces are served via an under floor, supply air plenum through manual and automatic, floor mounted, swirl diffusers. The Podium and Rotunda levels are primarily served by 2-pipe chilled water, VAV air handling units ducted to fan powered and VAV terminal units with electric heat.
A chilled water plant in the basement of the Podium receives chilled water from a district chiller plant with approximately 5,000 tons of chilled water being provided through (4) four plate & frame heat exchangers. Separate low zone and high zone chilled water pumping systems deliver approximately 7,600 GPM of chilled water for the Office Tower, Lower Podium levels, a Fitness Center, and the Devon Auditorium.
Domestic water service is provided by separate low zone and high zones systems, each utilizing a variable speed Triplex Booster Pump system. The high zone booster pump system is located on Level 23 of the office tower along with an 11,000 gallon domestic water reserve tank, and a 41,000 gallon fire reserve tank.
The New World of Coca-Cola project, which received a LEED NC 2.2 Gold Certification, consisted of a 75,000 square foot new building that houses Coke Museum exhibit spaces and galleries, a 4-D interactive theater, a working bottling area, and a Coca-Cola store. The HVAC systems were designed to provide energy efficient system through the utilization of a variable primary flow chilled water system consisting of two 300-ton centrifugal chillers, variable speed condenser water and chiller water pumps, a water-side economizer, and energy recovery units with enthalpy wheels. To provide critical cooling for the various A/V and control equipment, split system computer room A/C units were utilized.
The 4-D interactive theater provides visitors with an added dimension that includes the sensations of movement, wind and water effects. To help provide these added sensations, the plumbing system installed includes a complete air compressor system for compressed air and a reverse osmosis purified water system to provide the necessary air and water to each individual seat in the theater
Air conditioning, heating, ventilating, heat recovery, refrigeration and process piping. This is Coca-Cola’s laboratory where their secret formula is mixed.
A Sate of the Art, LEEDS accredited project, the Woodruff Arts Center / High Museum of Art expansion project consisted of approximately 177,000 square feet that included the addition of three buildings, essentially doubling the size of the existing museum. In addition to the new exhibit space, admin areas, a restaurant, and outdoor café, additional parking for 400 cars was provided by the construction of a 5-story parking deck.
Providing the cooling and heating demands of the expansion, the new central energy house included two 450-ton centrifugal chillers and natural gas fired boilers for hot water preheat and reheat, which served 4-pipe air handling units, fan coil units and terminal units with hot water reheat throughout the buildings. Heat recovery for low temperature hot water reheat was achieved via a heat exchanger incorporated into one of the 450-ton chillers. Precise temperature and humidity control in exhibit spaces was achieved through the utilization of a state of the art, triple redundant automatic temperature control system. The delivery of a conditioned air to the exhibit halls consists of an intricate linear feet of wooden floor diffusers.
Originally built in 1976 the 73-story Westin Peachtree has been a dominant feature of Atlanta’s skyline and at the time of it’s opening in 1977 was the tallest hotel in the world. In 2010 the original central plant equipment and controls that has served the cooling and heating needs of the 1,073 guest rooms and 80,000 square feet of multiple event and conference areas were due for replacement. Since the hotel was to remain in operation during the project, extensive pre-planning and pre-fabrication of the new chilled water and high-pressure steam piping systems had to take place.
The replacement of the high-pressure chilled water system involved the utilization of an existing 1,000-ton centrifugal chiller to provide the temporary cooing necessary during the demo and replacement phase of the three lithium bromide absorption chillers. Once the absorption chillers were removed, two 1,500-ton centrifugal chillers were brought into the central plant, which is 9-stories above the street level. A total of ten new chilled water pumps and three new condenser water pumps ranging from 240 up to 3,665 gpm were installed in addition to a 1,500-ton capacity place & frame heat exchanger.
The replacement of the high-pressure steam system had to be performed in stages in order to keep the hotel in operation and also due to the space constraints of the central plant. A total of eight new 287-hp, gas-fired, flexible watertube steam boilers replaced the two existing scotch-marine boilers. To provide steam during the replacement phase, three of the new boilers were installed on the upper level of a parking deck adjacent to an area near the central plant. Once the second set of boilers was installed and placed into operation the three “temporary” boilers were disconnected and moved into the central plant and connected to the new high-pressure steam piping system. To increase the operating efficiency of the steam system, two boiler stand economizers were installed to raise the temperature of the boiler feedwater temperatures.
1180 Peachtree is a 41-story high rise office building comprising of approximately 670,000 square feet of Class A office building space in addition the 27,00 square feet of retail space. 1180 Peachtree has the distinction of being the world’s first high-rise building to be pre-certified LEED-CS Silver and later after construction was complete, received LEED-CS Gold Level Certification, being the second building in the world to achieve this level of LEED certification and the first in the Southeast US.
A central plant comprised of two 1000-ton and one 400-ton centrifugal chillers in a variable primary flow arrangement distribute chilled water to custom air handling units on each office floor and throughout the building. Along with a state of the art DDC controls system and outside air monitoring, the HVAC system is highly efficient and provides precise comfort control for the occupants.