August-September e-Newsletter 2010

We at Abossein have been fortunate to have a long and productive relationship with VECA’s design-build electrical contracting team. That relationship has been further strengthened by the new addition of Shaun Hall who recently joined VECA. We have had the good fortune to work with Hall for a number of years, and he is a welcome addition to the team. VECA is a proud Northwest firm with expertise in heavy industry, military and high-end residential work.

One of our first jobs with VECA was a remodel for NAVFAC at the Naval Operational Support Center on Portland, Oregon’s Swan Island. This three-story site includes administration offices for the Navy, U.S. Marines, and Coast Guard. Abossein’s task was to upgrade the power distribution for all offices as well as branch circuiting and power for HVAC upgrades.

VECA Green is the company’s green energy division, and we at Abossein Engineering have worked on at least three LEED projects for them, including:

• U.S. Forest Service Project for the GSA at McKenzie River, OR. This 17,000 sq ft, single story addition required a complete redesign of the power system, including tying into an existing 50 kilowatt generator. Connections between the fire safety system and a new diesel-fired sprinkler pump with electrical components on the backup generator were also part of the design efforts. The lighting system included automatic dimming controls that adjust according to daylight levels. Further, low mercury content fluorescent lamps with high power factor T8 electronic ballast were used throughout the building to maximum efficiency and minimize harmful environmental effects.

• FY10 Medical and Dental Clinic Additions at Fort Lewis, WA for the Army Corps of Engineers. This project required power distribution for interior and exterior use, including lighting design for a 47,000 sq ft parking lot. The interior of this single story site is 17,000 sq ft, and consists of various medical departments, including optometry, dental, X-ray and general family medicine.

• Academic Fire Instruction Building for the Naval Air Station on Whidbey Island, WA. This 6,000 sq ft building includes administration offices, classrooms and a mock aircraft that is periodically set on fire, so that students can extinguish it as part of their training. Power distribution included connections to a high energy efficient geothermal heat pump system. High power factor T8 electronic ballast and low mercury fluorescent lamps were designed into the lighting systems to comply with LEED silver requirements. The lighting controls consisted of occupancy sensors throughout, dimmed fluorescents and separate daylight zone controls.

We are looking forward to being a part of this well-established, professional team, as our partnership with VECA continues to grow.

Our New Ventures with Tiscareno

Tiscareno Associates is a local, award winning architectural firm most well known for their design of Benaroya Hall. Recognized not only for great design, they are also excellent project managers and communicators, holding all stakeholders’ interests in their vision while proceeding to get the project done as efficiently as possible.

Abossein has been fortunate enough to work with Tiscareno Associates on several jobs this year, including a VA prosthetics lab and an upgrade to an officers’ administration building at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

Since the Iraq War, the VA hospital found that there was a need for an enlarged working space because of an increased demand for prosthetics. That problem was solved by moving the prosthetics lab to an old therapy pool location, a 6,000 sq ft site. Prior to the move, the site was renovated for use as office space, personal therapy and exam rooms, as well as the prosthetic lab.

Our mechanical design included: new air handlers with steam heat and chilled water for air conditioning, reusing as much of the existing infrastructure and the lab’s hood ventilation system as possible. Our electrical design added energy conservation systems, including skylights, and automatic daylighting control systems. A joint venture by Performance Systems Inc. and Centennial Enterprises Inc. as general contractors led this superb team of qualified contractors and subcontractors to complete the work.

The HVAC upgrades for building 819 at the Puget Sound Naval Station in Bremerton, WA, were on a “mission critical” timeline, while still requiring the most efficient, economical HVAC design possible. This renovated Naval Administration and Operations Building was designed to meet or exceed local, state and federal energy standards. It included a high efficiency Mitsubishi Citi-Multi heat pump system, which provides heating and cooling, was integrated with the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard's existing energy management system.

The building’s ventilation was also upgraded, as well as some of the building envelope, which required window tinting film and greater insulation at the roof. The project was executed by Diversified Maintenance Systems, highly experienced military contractors. Founded in 1996, DMS is a woman owned contracting firm based in Salt Lake City, Utah, with offices throughout the U.S., with a strong sense of value and keen eye for excellence.

We have been delighted and impressed with our working experience of the Tiscareno team, and look forward to a dynamic future together.

Is Wind Power a Viable Option for Commercial Buildings in Washington State?

Small wind, as wind power is referred to when used for residential or commercial buildings, has recently benefitted from an extension of renewable energy tax credits. This gives building owners a $1,000 or a $4,000 tax credit for residential or commercial systems, respectively.

Small wind typically requires wind speeds to average at least 11 mph to generate a significant amount of electricity. This means that, while the Seattle metropolitan area is not an ideal candidate for wind power, some parts of Western Washington—and most of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Washington—provide excellent locations for small wind power generation.

While wind power tends to have high initial capital costs, the return on investment to the owner and the benefits to the community are many-fold. Because a great deal of the cost of wind power is in manufacturing and installation, wind power creates more primary and secondary jobs than any other source of energy per kilowatt. The high cost of solar panels, by comparison, is due to the use of expensive materials, and small wind does not require the ongoing cost of conventional fuels, such as oil, coal or natural gas.

Wind turbines provide a return on investment within 6 to 15 years, depending on wind conditions. This expense can be mitigated with federal, state and local tax incentives. Further, by essentially pre-paying for electricity, one avoids the predictable increase in power costs, which occur over time. Properly maintained wind turbines will last for 20-30 years, even in very harsh climate conditions.

Wind power generators for commercial buildings are still an emerging technology. However, the continued development of small serial turbines and “wind balls”, spherical turbines that operate in very slow wind speeds, are overcoming issues that have previously been of concern for commercial use, such as noise affecting the building tenants and vibrations affecting the structural integrity of the mounting and building roof.

Wind power today costs about 20 percent of what it cost in the mid-1980s, and it is only expected to continue to decline as the market for wind power grows. Wind power is now one of the country’s largest sources of new energy, and is expected to outpace nuclear power by 2030.

Last Month's Answer: True, but only for HVAC at this time.

Question of the month (see next month's issue for the answer):

“Which one of the following will be used to increase a motor’s efficiency: Resistors, Capacitors, Inductors or just plain TLC?”