DC DGS Emergency COVID Preparedness / BAS Upgrade for 117 Schools, Washington, DC
“Size:
117 Active Public Schools
Services:
MEP Design
BAS Upgrades
HVAC Retrofits
Energy Management Design
Highlights:
Indoor Air Quality
Recovery Readiness
2021 Project of the Year Award - CMAA
”
In response to the urgent need to address the risk of COVID infection in 117 active public schools, SETTY and a team of consultants acted quickly to provide a solution to the DC Department of General Services (DGS). Worked under an accelerated delivery schedule to ensure that all 117 schools were safe and fully operational by the start of the 2021-2022 school year.
In light of the COVID pandemic, the DC Department of General Services sought to improve the air quality in 117 active public-school buildings to ensure the safety and wellbeing of students, faculty, and visitors. SETTY was consulted to undertake a comprehensive assessment and retrofit of the existing air quality systems.
The project focused on upgrading the Building Automation Systems (BAS) in each school building. As the Prime consultant, SETTY designed a Delta Controls enteliWEB facility and energy management system for each school. This system allows for remote monitoring and control of the main HVAC equipment from a network operations center.
The enteliWEB system includes a user-friendly dashboard that provides real-time data on indoor air quality, temperature, humidity, and energy usage. The system also includes alerts and notifications to quickly respond to any issues or malfunctions in the HVAC equipment.
By upgrading the BAS in each school building, SETTY ensured that the air quality systems were operating at their highest efficiency, providing clean and healthy air to students, faculty, and visitors. The project was a critical step in safeguarding the health and safety of the school community during the COVID pandemic.
The project won the 2021 Project of the Year Award from the Construction Management Association of America National Capital Chapter in recognition of the exceptional work done by the team in improving air quality and ensuring a safer learning environment in 117 public schools.
Phase 1 of the project involved a thorough assessment of the air quality systems in 117 public-school buildings. SETTY provided training for contractors on using the Delta Controls enteliWEB system and collaborated with them to define the scope of work, including creating a COVID sequence of operations to improve ventilation. The team detected and reported any sensor and hardware failures to ensure they were addressed. This phase established a strong foundation for the successful implementation of necessary upgrades, ultimately resulting in a safer and healthier learning environment for all.
In Phase 2 of the project, SETTY designed and constructed a central enteliWEB Digital FM platform, connecting all 117 public-school buildings to the system. To facilitate bi-directional BACnet traffic between in-building systems and the cloud, the team installed a BACnet router/controller. In addition, a Voltron box was installed to capture data values every 10 minutes and send them to a cloud archiver. To make sense of this data, SETTY implemented meta-data tagging of trended data points, which allowed any applications to understand what the data represents. The team also created an end-user interface UI for managing, understanding, and troubleshooting building and equipment performance, as well as for automated fault detection. Zoning, scheduling, optimum start, and COVID sequences were implemented to optimize system performance, while critical alarming was set up to provide alerts for urgent issues.
SETTY was hired to complete the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) designs for each of the 117 active public schools in the DCPS portfolio, which were categorized into three types based on their outside air capability. SETTY analyzed and designed each school based on two primary principles.
The first principle was to ensure that the air change rates throughout each building were appropriate, with filter levels and technology selected based on the school's HVAC unit's ability to handle the changes. In schools without larger units and relying on smaller classroom-level units, portable units with HEPA filters and UV light were installed to exceed MERV 13 filtration levels and provide a high level of particulate filtration.
The second principle was to ensure that indoor air quality was monitored by the building control system and a secondary sensing system that runs in parallel with the existing Building Automation System (BAS). The sensing system monitored PM 2.5 particulate levels, CO2 levels, temperature, humidity, and VOCs. For monitoring indoor air quality, SETTY used Senseware, which allows for efficient monitoring and improvement of indoor air quality. Lastly, the Wells-Riley model for transmission rates was utilized for the design strategy of individual classrooms.
