Projects

At EMSI we stake our reputation on every project we do. It is a commitment to total client satisfaction. We offer a sound approach to bring in projects on time and on budget. Below is a partial listing of some of the projects that we have completed.

NASA Dryden Facility – Edward Air Force Base

EMSI’s first official commissioning project was for NASA Dryden Facility at Edwards AFB in 2004. EMSI was contracted by the installing contractor to provide commissioning services. This project consisted of an existing facility being upgraded with a new VAV air system. This applied to approximately 20,000 sq ft of office area. It also included a central plant upgrade for new cooling towers, air handling units, VAV boxes, DDC controls, and heating hot water system. The commissioning resulted in numerous savings in installation production and allowed the client to move into a functioning space.

Commissioning items that resulted in substantial savings were:

1. Cooling tower isolation: Isolators in wrong location. The commissioning agent detected this during submittal verification and isolator identification prior to piping of system. Isolators were initially installed incorrectly. This saved numerous hours had the system been filled with water and started.

2. VAV hot water valves mislabeled: Hot water heating valves were not labeled correctly by the vendor. The onsite Commissioning agent detected this when verifying Cv ratings and matching to VAV boxes. Could have resulted in a non-performing heating system that would not have been found out until six months later during winter months and correction would have been costly.

3. Split duct system: During verification of air balance the commissioning agent found a major loss in static pressure when reviewing TAB report. After tracing the ducting they found a split in the duct located in an older section of the building, an area not being worked on in this project. When this split was corrected it resulted in correct performance of the new system plus other areas the owner had been having air flow issues in the past.

Through proper commissioning of the systems the owner was able to move into the upgraded area and realize system performance and comfort as expected.

Alvarado Medical Office Building

EBCx Commissioning was conducted after the upgrade of the central plant. This project was for an existing 25 year old three-story medical office building, which over the years had numerous tenant changes. The building had a central air system located on the penthouse with VAV reheat through out. The control system in the office area was pneumatic while the central chiller plant had DDC.
EBCx Commissioning was conducted after the upgrade of the central plant.This project was for an existing 25 year old three-story medical office building, which over the years had numerous tenant changes.The building had a central air system located on the penthouse with VAV reheat through out.The control system in the office area was pneumatic while the central chiller plant had DDC.

Building pressurization: The lower floors were having issues with doors standing open and poor air circulation. The commissioning agent found the building outside air dampers non operable and the exhaust fans not responding to pressure sensors. Dampers were made functional and building static pressure system repaired. This resulted in doors not standing open and a comfortable office area.
Numerous offices complaining of hot or cold: While checking calibration of the control system the commissioning agent found that the pneumatic control system had accumulated a substantial amount of moisture resulting in erratic or no control at the VAV boxes. The moisture build up was due to a faulty air dryer. This was replaced and the system dried out using dry nitrogen and the controls recalibrated and systems put back into service. Tenant and patient comfort was restored.
Hot water boiler: During hot water system check out the commissioning agent did a quick evaluation of building size and typical heating loads and compared to installed capacity of the existing boiler. The hot water boiler was undersized for the connected load. Through evaluation of past records found that during a previous boiler failure a replacement unit was installed with the quickest available which solved the immediate problem but is undersized should a max heating requirement occur. Building owner has put on a capital investment budget.

This commissioning project resulted in the owner reducing nuisance calls by over 80%, energy savings of 35% and tenant satisfaction that allowed the management to work on other revenue generating issues.

Mechanical systems commissioning

Mechanical systems commissioning

Mechanical systems commissioningThis facility is approximately 180,000 sq. ft. The central plant has two chillers one air-cooled and one new water-cooled variable speed centrifugal. It has 23 air-handling units, 174 VAV boxes with reheat coils, two hot water boilers, six pumps of various sizes, and 30 exhaust fans. The control system is DDC. The building has numerous requirements including classrooms, theater, staff offices, and special collections of fossils, rare books and other items. In addition it has a wet range that utilizes special fluids for storage of a large collection of snakes, lizards, and other reptiles. The museum also has traveling exhibits that require special temperature and humidity conditions such as the DEAD SEA SCROLLS. EBCx Commissioning started in March of 2007 and is still ongoing. This commissioning process in being done to meet LEED certification.

Issues found to date are.

VAV boxes: Several VAV boxes did not have the hot water piping installed correctly resulting in cold spaces during the winter. Building occupants were using portable heaters for comfort.
Inoperable valves: Several chilled water valves and actuators have been found to be in operable resulting in no control of cooling to the space. Build engineer had to manually control the system.
Air noise and pulsing air: Found static pressure sensors faulty in the air duct resulting in the variable speed drive fluctuating and causing erratic air flow.
Motor starters: Special collections in the wet range were designed with a special air system that provides one amount of air during normal operation and a large amount of air in the event of emergency. Commissioning agent found original starters were not installed to meet two-speed function.
Water treatment: During checking water flows on lower floors the commissioning agent found chilled water and hot water coils contaminated with large amounts of dirt causing a loss of heat transfer. Signs that the system had never been flushed after original start up. EMSI flushed the system and installed a water treatment program resulting in proper performance of the cooling and heating coil.
DDC control system: To date numerous VAV box actuators and other valves have been found to be out of calibration and or not operating at all. These are being corrected as commissioning progresses through out the facility.

Once commissioning is complete it is expected that the Museum will realize complete comfort and control of the temperature and humidity in all areas including special collections with a substantial energy savings.

EBCx Commissioning was conducted after the upgrade of the central plant.This project was for an existing 25 year old three-story medical office building, which over the years had numerous tenant changes.The building had a central air system located on the penthouse with VAV reheat through out.The control system in the office area was pneumatic while the central chiller plant had DDC. During the commissioning process the following items were detected:Mechanical systems commissioning Mechanical systems commissioningThis facility is approximately 180,000 sq. ft.The central plant has two chillers one air-cooled and one new water-cooled variable speed centrifugal.It has 23 air-handling units, 174 VAV boxes with reheat coils, two hot water boilers, six pumps of various sizes, and 30 exhaust fans.The control system is DDC.The building has numerous requirements including classrooms, theater, staff offices, and special collections of fossils, rare books and other items.In addition it has a wet range that utilizes special fluids for storage of a large collection of snakes, lizards, and other reptiles.The museum also has traveling exhibits that require special temperature and humidity conditions such as the DEAD SEA SCROLLS.EBCx Commissioning started in March of 2007 and is still ongoing.This commissioning process in being done to meet LEED certification.

Design Retrofit:

These projects have consisted of retrofitting central plants from old pneumatic controls and inefficient chillers to new DDC systems with new state of the art high efficiency chillers; variable flow pumping systems, and following up with a complete systems commissioning to meet the owners current intent.

EBCx Commissioning was conducted after the upgrade of the central plant.This project was for an existing 25 year old three-story medical office building, which over the years had numerous tenant changes.The building had a central air system located on the penthouse with VAV reheat through out.The control system in the office area was pneumatic while the central chiller plant had DDC. During the commissioning process the following items were detected:Mechanical systems commissioning Mechanical systems commissioningThis facility is approximately 180,000 sq. ft.The central plant has two chillers one air-cooled and one new water-cooled variable speed centrifugal.It has 23 air-handling units, 174 VAV boxes with reheat coils, two hot water boilers, six pumps of various sizes, and 30 exhaust fans.The control system is DDC.The building has numerous requirements including classrooms, theater, staff offices, and special collections of fossils, rare books and other items.In addition it has a wet range that utilizes special fluids for storage of a large collection of snakes, lizards, and other reptiles.The museum also has traveling exhibits that require special temperature and humidity conditions such as the DEAD SEA SCROLLS.EBCx Commissioning started in March of 2007 and is still ongoing.This commissioning process in being done to meet LEED certification.