As City Council may recall, during the Recreation and Aquatic Expansion project Volt Air Consulting Engineers was tasked by staff to perform a system evaluation on the existing HVAC and identify deficiencies directly related to the building expansion project and to evaluate the existing condition of system components and how they would relate to system upgrades as part of the expansion project. Subsequent to the analysis several major items were identified and ranked according to critical operational features that should be addressed as high priorities.
Priority one (1) called out for the replacement of the existing 170 ton chiller with two (2) 110-ton chillers in order to provide reliability and redundancy. The analysis went on to describe the existing chiller at or close to the end of its useful life. In addition, the current condition of the condenser coils were grossly detreated which produced less cooling and dehumidification conditions inside the building.
Priority two (2) called out for the upgrade of the existing direct digital controls (DDC) system. This system upgrade would convert the HVAC system into a total automated system where one central computer would control system operations of components, collect data for trend implementation, monitor system for failures, and submitting automated notifications of the failures for the appropriate remediation to the system.