Westwood Tower and Sir John Thompson Buildings — HVAC Upgrades

Summary

Westwood Tower (WT) and Sir John Thompson (SJT) residential buildings are owned and operated by Metropolitan Regional Housing Authority (MRHA) which provide affordable housing apartments to senior citizens. These are 6 and 4 storey buildings, respectively, plus a basement, and include apartments, common areas/rooms, laundry facilities, and storage areas.

Both buildings required major boiler room and heating system upgrades, as well as an air-handling unit upgrade for SJT.

MCA Consultants was responsible for mechanical and electrical design of the heating upgrades.

Services Provided

• Hydronic Plumbing
• Electrical (coordination)
• Controls (Building Management System)
• Ventilation
• Glycol System

Key Design Elements

Westwood Towers

• Conversion to Natural Gas from Oil: Implementation of Natural Gas to building’s boiler system and removal of existing oil tank and components
• Implementation of three High-Efficiency fire tube Natural Gas boilers with smart ECM pumps (from original oil-fired boilers with constant speed supply pumps)
• New Building Management System (BMS) including controls components and sequences to integrate all existing and new equipment together

Sir John Thompson

• Increasing overall heating capacity for tenant heating comfort by adding two Natural Gas fire tube wall mount boilers to take on total domestic hot water heating load
• Implementation of smart ECM pumps for all pumps
• Upgrade to building’s air supply with new Air Handling Unit, equipped with glycol system serving the unit’s heating coil, which utilizes heat from building’s hydronic heating system
• New Building Management System (BMS) including controls components and sequences to integrate all existing and new equipment together (hydronic and ventilation)