Allana Buick & Bers, Inc. (ABBAE) was retained by the City of San Jose to provide design and construction phase services for the mechanical upgrade and exterior facade repair of their Environmental Services Building.
ABBAE’s initial assessment to determine the extent and cause of leaks also uncovered roof failure and an HVAC system that was below current building code energy standards. The City of San Jose set a goal of achieving LEED certification for the building.
ABBAE designed a retrofit of the existing constant volume HVAC system, central controls and laboratory air system. The new system designed is a variable flow central system with demand-based controls for both the chiller and boiler plants. A new laboratory air control system will optimize fume hood exhaust and associated make up air flow. The new system will also recover fume hood exhaust air energy.
Also included in our scope was repair work on the exterior metal skin and installation of a white roof which will reflect the heat rather than absorb it.
The U.S. Green Business Council awarded the City with a LEED Gold Certification for this project. In addition to a fully optimized HVAC system, changes included water efficient landscaping, indoor water conservation, construction waste management, the use of recycled, renewable, and local building materials.
ABBAE also provided Commissioning, Monitoring and Verification (M&V) Services to the City. Commissioning is the process of verifying that the system is operating and controlled per design. M&V includes tracking the energy usage of all system components on a monthly basis for a 12-month period. The building energy use
monitoring indicated a 35% reduction in energy costs during the first year.