This month’s Facility File will focus  on the  B2B June test for an HVAC application on a college campus with  a building program to construct a new 12-classroom facility. The project delivery  method is integrated project delivery  (IPD).

As a rule, college and  university support  services are very knowledgeable about the HVAC infrastructure that  is required to assure the  correct space environment. Still, it would be  very beneficial for these individuals,  along with  the  rest of the  IPD team, to read ASHRAE 2015 Application Handbook, chapter 7 (Educational Facilities) to refresh their knowledge of ASHRAE’s guidelines when  pre- paring to authorize  the designing classrooms. In addition, chapter 34 of the handbook discusses geothermal energy in preparation of designing and  constructing a water ground source heat  pump (GSHP) system. The owner’s  facility  management group should also read  chapters 36 through 43 of the 2015 Handbook to assist in preparing for operating and  maintaining a GSHP system. This informa- tion combined with the owner’s  own knowledge of operating this type  of room will assist the IPD team in understanding intricacies of owning, operating, and  managing geothermal installations. It is also recommended that  the owner-design team read  chapter 59 of the same ASHRAE handbook titled  HVAC Security.

The IPD team will consist of the college president, campus operations manager, project manager from the school’s  construction management group, owner  representative who will also provide third-party commissioning and  air and  water-balancing, HVAC con- sultant engineer as the team leader, architect, electrical and  plumbing consultants, acoustic consultant, environmental/soils consul- tant,  security subconsultants, general contractor, and  HVAC/electrical/plumbing subcontractors.

With all these design guidelines from ASHRAE, the IPD team will meet  with the college’s O&M staff to discuss specific building stan- dards that  need to be applied to this project. For this project, the facility  operation is an in-house staff and  not an outsourced group, and  they  will want to be  assured that  adequate  contract specification requirements include pertinent O&M,  training,  preventive maintenance work order system, and  energy operating budget elements.

In the Phase 3 Concept Development of the IPD project, the campus operations manager and  her O&M  staff will want to con- tribute  information to the design team member’s writing of the contract specification, and  more specifically, regarding the following activities:  service contracts, parts inventory, and  as-built drawings requirements. Reviewing  the design documents, this O&M staff will want to be assured that  equipment serviceability is adequate and  safe and  that  there  is a clear  understanding of how  geothermal applications work throughout the year.

For the June B2B IPD test, the team will work closely together with owner-designer-builder, based on a building program construction  budget so the  general contractor and  his in-house  engineering and  estimator (along with  the  prime  subcontractors) will be involved in the design phase  and  be able  to contribute collectively to the contract documents. In the construction phase, the O&M staff will want to revisit the issues noted above during  the design phase. Next comes  the startup and commissioning phases.

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