Fan Coils Restore Comfort To Philly Apartments

Shower Heads, Valves Boost University’s Green Mission A retrofi t of locker-room plumbing fi xtures helps Sonoma State Univ. achieve its conservation and sustainability goals.

Located 40 mi. north of San Francisco, Sonoma State Univ. has more than 9,000 students, 1,500 employees, and more than 2 million sq. ft. of educational and residential buildings. Located in the heart of California’s wine country, the university’s rural setting in Rohnert Park infl uences the institution’s long association with conservation and sustainability. These two missions are major reasons why the university—recognized by

Princeton Review as having one of the nation’s 12 most green campuses—has opted to upgrade plumbing hardware in its shower rooms.

Original plumbing hardware in the locker and shower rooms in the 65,985-sq.-ft. physical-education building needed replacement, and the SSU facilities management plumbing shop was looking for a cost-effective yet high-quality retrofit. The campus was experiencing significant water loss due to leaks from the 40-yr.-old column showers with their inefficient showerheads and worn-out valves.

Kevin Davis, SSU lead plumber, proposed researching and developing a time and materials cost-savings plan for the showers. Davis was able to design a 14-gal. stainless-steel hexagonal enclosure that would retrofit the existing column showers and equip them with six valves/column. Davis turned to Moen, North Olmsted, OH, to discuss the proposed retrofit and ultimately chose the firm’s vandal-resistant showerheads.

Campus decision makers added 32 Moen Commercial single-handle, pressure-balancing shower valves, along with 18 Commercial M-Dura chrome showerheads, in the center’s men’s and women’s locker rooms. In addition, on an as-needed basis, the university is swapping out worn, leaking plastic shower-valve cartridges with more than 1,000 heavy-duty brass replacement cartridges across all of the student-housing complexes on campus.

The vandal-resistant showerheads boast a highly reflective chrome finish and feature a design that uses less water without sacrificing performance. Water flows through an engineered-polymer channel for instant, consistent flow, and the spray pattern is designed to maximize force while saving water. The valves were fitted with lever handles that match the brushed stainless-steel enclosure. In addition to the shower retrofits, Moen’s heavy-duty brass cartridges are being added as needed throughout the campus to replace leaking plastic cartridges. The leaks mainly are a consequence of well water that contains high levels of calcium, magnesium, and silica. Over time, this hard water wears down plastic. The brass cartridges, on the other hand, have proven more durable.

“While the quality of potable water delivered to the campus is excellent, it does contain measurable amounts of calcium and silica which, in combination, pose challenges to the wetted surfaces of all plumbing fixtures,” explained Davis. “We are very pleased with the performance of the new cartridges with their robust design. It is a perfect fit for an institution like Sonoma State Univ., where there are hundreds of shower valves that must perform effectively and efficiently year-round across the campus.”

Above, left. Located in the heart of California’s wine country, Sonoma State Univ.’s rural setting in Rohnert Park infl uences the institution’s long association with conservation and sustainability.

Above, middle. In addition to locker-room shower upgrades, on an asneeded basis, the university is swapping out worn, leaking plastic shower-valve cartridges with more than 1,000 heavy-duty brass replacement cartridges across the campus student-housing complexes.

Above, right. Vandal-resistant showerheads have a highly refl ective chrome fi nish and feature a design that uses less water without sacrifi cing performance. Water fl ows through an engineered-polymer channel for instant, consistent fl ow, and the spray pattern is designed to maximize force while saving water.

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Fan Coils Restore Comfort To Philly Apartments

Historical Philadelphia apartment building combines vintage charm with an energy-efficient heating-and-cooling upgrade.

Mixing historic Philadelphia architecture with modern amenities, the Touraine Apartments provide a unique city-living experience. M ixing the artistry of historic Philadelphia architecture with a modern style that appeals to today’s metropolitan dwellers, the Touraine Apartments provide a unique city-living experience near Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse

Square and the Avenue of the Arts. The 13-story apartment building, originally designed as a hotel in 1917 by architect Frederick

Weber, stands today among a mix of old and new as an exemplar of the city’s sturdy, yet exceptionally elegant, structural roots.

Owner’s-representative company Reinhold Residential, Philadelphia, which acquired the Touraine in 1987, recently earmarked the property for extensive capital improvements to enhance the comfort of its tenants and the energy efficiency of the building.

“When we took over management of the Touraine in the late 1980s, we inherited some features that weren’t exactly ideal,” said Giuliano Pignataro of Reinhold Residential. “Over the years we had great support in maintaining the building and elements like its mechanical system for optimal operation, but with goals to improve the sustainability and indoor comfort of the property, it was time for a more substantial change.”

According to Pignataro, Reinhold Residential’s holistic property-management philosophy emphasizes the tenets of sustainability. The company specializes in transforming historical architectural properties into attractive, modern residential communities.

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE “Using existing building stock in fresh and creative ways is the ultimate method to reduce, reuse, and recycle,” said Pignataro. “In addition, bringing new life to buildings like the Touraine, which just wouldn’t be constructed this way today, means that we can offer a unique, enriched living experience that is full of character and very different from the shiny new cookie-cutter buildings going up around town.”

In addition to focusing on building renovations versus new construction, Reinhold Residential strives to incorporate the latest green building innovations, from non-toxic paints, finishes, and cleaning products, to locally sourced and reclaimed materials, to highly efficient lighting and HVAC systems. These were all elements included in the Touraine’s capital-improvement plan, which was put into motion in 2011.

With a goal of substantially increasing energy efficiency, Reinhold Residential enlisted the services of regional HVAC/R service company Elliott-Lewis Corp., Philadelphia, to identify improvements to the building’s mechanical system that would make the greatest impact.

“Our company has been operating in this area since 1905, which means we have a history with a lot of older buildings here,” said Gene Zak, director of service at Elliott-Lewis. According to Zak, Elliott-Lewis has been a longstanding provider of mechanical-system service for the Touraine building.

“We’d worked on several components of the mechanical system over the years, including the 15-ton natural-gas-fired engines that supply energy to the building’s 300-ton chiller,” said Zak. “We also specified and installed two new 100-ton boilers and have supported ongoing maintenance of the individual fan-coil units in the apartments.”

For the building-wide HVAC system upgrade, Zak collaborated with regional manufacturers’ representative Energy Transfer Solutions, Kennet Square, PA, to specify replacement fan-coil units for all 131 apartments in the Touraine. After more than three decades in operation, the original fan-coil units had reached the end of their useful life.

BEHIND THE WALLS “When we opened up the walls and saw that the unit was made by someone still in the business, we were excited,” Pignataro said. “Then it became about evaluating what the best replacement solution would be.”

The manufacturer, International Environmental Corp. (IEC), Oklahoma City, had recently released its ReStoraMOD modular high-rise replacement fan-coil series, which seemed like an ideal fit for the Touraine project.

“Our goal was to minimize disturbance to the existing infrastructure of the apartment, particularly because the building is fully occupied, and we wanted the job done as quickly as possible in each unit,” Zak said. “We also wanted to reduce the amount of reconstruction work that would be necessary by a general contractor to further streamline the project and save on cost.”

In response to these needs, Energy Transfer Solutions recommended the new fan-coil product for several reasons.

“With nearly 250 fan-coil units to replace, including a wide range of size combinations and many different discharge air con

Top. Owner’s representative company Reinhold Residential earmarked the Touraine Apartments for extensive capital improvements to enhance the comfort of its tenants and the building’s energy efficiency.

Above. Reinhold specializes in transforming historical architectural properties into attractive, modern residential communities, following the tenets of reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Left. Fan-coil units for all 131 apartments in the Touraine were replaced. After more than three decades in operation, the original units had reached the end of their useful life.

Right. The new fan- coil units were designed for fast and minimally invasive installation that did not have an impact on neighboring spaces and could be completed on a room-by-room basis.

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figurations, this was a big job,” said Casey Younkins, P.E., sales engineer at Energy Transfer Solutions. “The new unit seemed to come along just at the right time, and we were excited about the fact that it is designed for this very type of application.”

According to Darren Mounts, product manager at IEC, the new unit was designed for fast and minimally invasive installation that does not have an impact on neighboring spaces and can be completed on a room-by-room basis. Its three-step installation process includes: removal of existing surface components and trim drywall, removal of the existing unit’s internal components and trim cabinet edges, and setting the new unit into the existing cavity and hooking it up to the existing infrastructure.

Compatible with most modular high-rise units, including IEC and competitive models, the fan-coil units are available in 300-, 400-, and 600-cfm capacities. They provide energy savings and indoor air quality, with a variety of options including closedcell insulation, an ECM motor, antimicrobial coatings, and advanced humidity control.

Energy Transfer Solutions worked with Elliott-Lewis to install a preliminary mock-up unit in the spring of 2012, after which the team worked with IEC on some slight modifications to the cabinet sizing to ensure an ideal fit.

“For this application, Elliott-Lewis and IEC realized that reusing a portion of the existing supply-air plenum would expedite installation while reducing project costs,” Mounts said. “To enable the unit to accommodate these elements, IEC shortened the unit’s standard height, which was achieved without impacting its performance or service access.”

Upon formally selecting the units for the 243- unit replacement project at the Touraine, the project team worked with Reinhold Residential to develop a three-phase installation plan.

FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS “Our fi rst order of business was to shut down the heating and cooling completely to replace all valves on the 18 risers in the building, which would allow us to isolate the risers during replacement of the individual fan-coil units,” Zak explained. “We did this in March, while the weather was mild and neither heating nor cooling was needed by the tenants.”

In addition, because the new units included twoway control valves to further enhance energy efficiency, the team worked to upgrade the building’s electrical wiring to accommodate them. Specifically, variable-frequency drives were added to the pumps to optimize operation, and the boiler-control system was updated to allow improved modulation.

“With this additional electric component, the new units will provide the tenants with more control

over their heating and cooling during the shoulder months of the season,” Younkins explained.

The first of three phases of installation began in the spring of 2013 and was completed by the summer. Phase-two installation began and was completed in the fall of 2013.

“The tiered installation process has been beneficial for us on numerous levels,” Pignataro said. “We’ve been able to minimize the impact on our tenants by isolating replacements according to the orientation of the risers, which means construction is only happening in specific areas of the building. In addition, IEC has provided us with just-in-time delivery of the units only as we need them, which means we’re able to more ideally finance the project, and we don’t have to worry about storing units until they’re installed.”

“After our initial experience with the units, we would definitely recommend them for similar retrofit jobs,” Zak said. “The units worked out very well for us, and I’d say we probably cut the job time in half, compared to what it would have taken using another type of HVAC equipment.”

The Touraine project was an ideal venue for showing what can be done in high-rise fancoil retrofit applications. “There are literally hundreds of buildings just in the Philadelphia area where old fan coils are

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being serviced and piecemealed, when they should really be replaced,” Younkins said. “The replacement units offer an efficient, reliable way to do this without making huge capital investments, particularly in reconstruction work. We expect this to be the first of many successful installations in the city.”

“At the end of the day it’s all about improving the experience of our tenants,” Pignataro said, “and we’re also glad to be saving on energy and bringing this historic gem of a building back up to shining status.” CBP

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Circle 7 on the Reader Service Card. Reader Service Card.

Watch a video of the Watch a video of the ReStoraMOD installation ReStoraMOD installation project at the Touraine Apartments.

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