Eastern CT State University High Rise Tower Renovation

Willimantic, CT

This project entailed the complete renovation of a nine-story High-Rise Residence Hall at Eastern Connecticut State University. Aztech Engineers, Inc. was responsible for the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire alarm and fire protection (MEP) design portion in which the apartments were reconfigured for a different density and the existing electric heating system was removed and converted to a hydronic fan coil type system. Limited space within the apartments led to creative solutions for the installation of the new fan coil units.

Air conditioning was added to the building via chilled water. The heating/cooling generating plant is a ground source heat pump system (extracting heat from and rejecting heat to the ground), this being one of the larger ground source heat pump installations of its kind. An innovative piping configuration and control sequence enables the heat pumps to preheat the domestic hot water displacing some electric resistance water heating. This substantially increased the available utility incentive. To date, the ground source heat pump system is operating beyond expectations. Cooling has been added and the utility bills have been substantially reduced.

The entire renovation (construction) was completed in a seven-month period. Aztech Engineers, Inc. and Eastern Connecticut State University received a Connecticut Quality and Innovation Silver Award for this project.

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