When The Client Says "Don't Design Us a Building That Costs $80,000 a Month to Heat!"

Kermit Olson, P.E., and Bill Blanski, HGA, Inc.

The Laboratory Building in the State of Minnesota Departments of Agriculture and Health was occupied in Fall 2005; the building is 176,000 sq. ft. and cost $50 million. Nick Turner, the manager for State buildings, had an early and interesting challenge to our team: "You're not going to give me a building that costs me $80,000 a month to heat, are you?" He was right on track.

Laboratories are high energy users because:

• Regardless of energy, health and safety are paramount.
• HVAC systems are both 100 percent outside air and 100 percent exhaust air.
• Laboratories range from 6 to over 60 air changes per hour.
• Laboratories operate continuously, resulting in extremely high transport electrical energy demand.
• High intensity heat gain equipment requires enormous cooling energy.
• There are close to 120 fume hoods, 60 biosafety cabinets, and many specialized exhausts.

Also, the laboratory systems needed to respond to these issues:

• This is a 100 year old building. The mechanical systems won't last that long, but they need to last 25 years.
• Systems need to be adaptable and changeable.
• Systems need to operate continuously and reliably.
• Equipment needs to be redundant for maintenance service.

Although approached differently, depending on the hazardous level of the laboratories, these are some energy conserving design strategies implemented for each lab:

• Variable-air-volume systems for both supply air and for exhaust air resulting central systems that are 40 percent smaller than they would be if we had done constant volume systems.
• The fume hoods use variable volume exhaust.
• Zone presence sensors are used on the fume hoods.
• Energy management systems are used to monitor energy use and systems operation.
• Premium efficient motors are used.
• Variable frequency drives are used on all of the major motors.
• Duct and piping systems are designed to minimize transport energy use.

A major energy saving application we employed was the use of six 12-foot diameter total energy heat recovery wheels. These are recovering 75 percent of the total energy from the exhaust air stream which is then available to be used to heat, humidify, cool, and dehumidify the outside air stream.

Simple payback for these $100,000 wheels is a very short 1.7 years. Energy savings over 20 years will be $7 million. The effect of the wheels in operation is as if to take the laboratory in Saint Paul Minnesota and move it to San Diego California—with estimated energy costs in the order of $80,000 per month, which is 50 percent less than a code-conforming building of the same scale.

Labs21 Connection:

The story above is to focus on one aspect from the presentation we want to share at the 2006 Labs21 Conference for the new State of Minnesota Laboratory for the Departments of Agriculture and Health.

The design of this lab facility is the result of the pursuit of sustainable, high performance, and low-energy outcomes that have minimized environmental impacts. This occurs specifically in four areas:

• A programming strategy of right-sizing the building's program through co-location of two previously separate State agencies.
• The following of the new Minnesota Sustainable Guidelines as a beta project.
• Lean planning and organizing of the building into a highly ordered regime of disciplined design.
• Lastly, the detailed design of the heat recovery wheel system mentioned in the abstract above.

This Department of Agriculture and Health Laboratory is a showcase facility and the four items above provide the detailed data to demonstrate it as a precedent setting national model for energy use and conservation.

Biographies:

Kermit Olson, P.E., has over 30 years of experience providing mechanical engineering design services for a wide variety of projects. His design experience includes plumbing, fire protection, heating, ventilating and air-conditioning system design for commercial, industrial, healthcare, governmental and institutional building projects. Special areas of Kermit's expertise include energy conservation, indoor air quality, energy management and control systems, research laboratories, projects requiring highly technical solutions to complex problems and owner-occupied buildings.

Bill Blanski, AIA NCARB, is a design principal with Hammel, Green and Abrahamson, Inc. (HGA), a 500-person architecture and engineering firm with locations in the Midwest and California. Bill is the Director of HGA's Design Council working to further the firm's reputation for excellence as a national multi-disciplinary practice. Bill's designs for academic, governmental, and corporate research laboratories are widely recognized throughout the U.S. Blanski is a recipient of the Rapson Traveling Fellowship and is a recipient of a National AIA Young Architects Citation for Design; he has an Masters of Architecture degree from Yale University and a Bachelors of Architecture degree from the University of Minnesota.

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