This month’s Facility File focuses on the March Back2Basics retrofit of a campus-wide hot water boiler system covering 40 buildings with primary-, secondary-, and tertiary-pumping based on a performance lease agreement to retro-commission the system with a guaranteed operating savings. The university will hire an owner representative to work with a design-build-operate-maintain performance contractor (PC). The university will retain its boiler plant facility manager (FM). The PC firm will have in-house design/energy engineers and place the boiler plant O&M operators, remote energy monitoring/management, and the planned maintenance work order system on-site.

The university’s FM and the outsourced O&M staff should review the 2015 ASHRAE Handbook — HVAC Applications, chapters 36-43 (Building Operation and Maintenance), chapter 59 (HVAC Security), and chapter 61 (Smart Building Systems). They shall also review the 2016 ASHRAE Handbook — HVAC Systems and Equipment, chapters 1 (HVAC System Analysis and Selection) and 32 (Boilers). The PC design/energy engineer shall complete a campus-wide hydraulic model of the primary-, secondary-, and tertiary-pumping systems working with the university’s FM and existing university O&M staff.