Ryan Schulok
Mechanical Option
Pharm Corporation
-Pills, DE-
MECHANICAL DEPTH
The main analysis of the mechanical system at Pharm Corp. is evaluating all three alternatives: active chilled beams, natural gas boiler, and condensate recovery. The active chilled beam system is a redesign of both the cooling and heating system, the boiler is a redesign of the heating system, and the condensate recovery is a potential advantage for the cooling tower system. The expected results would be a substantial reduction in energy consumption along with a decrease in emissions. Each alternative will be modeled using Trane Trace 700, and will be compared to the original loads calculated in Technical Report 2.
Each system will have lifecycle cost analyses done, as well as a payback period when looking at the tradeoff between energy savings to upfront costs. These are the determining factors that owners view as the most important. As said above, the table below are the categories that will be evaluated and compared in the mechanical depth of the thesis.
After the model has been created, annual water consumption and electricity usage will be evaluated. Water consumption will be broken down to monthly usages for the overall system, while the electric usage will be divided up by each month for each subcategory expressed in Technical Report 2. Those subcategories are heating, cooling, auxiliary fans, receptacle loads and lighting.
ELECTRICAL PHOTOVOLTAIC BREADTH
By designing each of these alternatives and comparing it to the original base design, the largest factor between the designs will be the consumption of energy needed to operate the system fully. The original design is entirely electric heat, which is a large consumer of electricity on the site. As discussed in Technical Report 3, there are incentives and rebates for using certain means of renewable energy, such as solar photovoltaics.
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As it will be found out after modeling each system, the electric demands will fluctuate greatly between alternatives. If a solar PV system was to offset the electric demand in the building for each redesign, a different amount of panels will be needed for each design. Economic analysis will be conducted on the cost of solar panels compared to the amount of electricity that can be created.
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The solar PV system of each alternative will attempt to reduce energy by 30%, if that is a reachable goal. The reduction in energy goal will be determined once a preliminary solar PV design has been completed. Each alternative will require a different amount of panels to get the same energy reduction, while upfront cost and payback period will differ.
WATER CONSUMPTION BREADTH
A second source that is a variable between the original and alternative designs is the consumption of water. The original design only uses condenser water, while Alternative 1 – ACB uses both condenser, chilled water and hot water, Alternative 2 – Natural Gas boiler uses hot water and condenser water, and Alternative 3 – Condensate Recovery, uses condenser water. This breadth is strictly investigating how each system impacts the water consumption within the mechanical system. Water for plumbing fixtures will remain the same through each system.
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Each of the systems will use different amounts of water, and different water temperatures. Analyzing how each system will change its water consumption when both the load in the space shifts, along with the temperature of the water being brought to the space will be conducted. For the chilled beam system, the cooling temperature water is generally higher than chilled water systems, and the hot water is generally cooler than the hot water supplied from the boiler. However, the chilled beams may use more water because of those temperatures. This analysis will be conducted as the second breadth.
Original Proposal
Revised Proposal
