All photos shown are from our 2019 project at the Dunn Building.
Berkeley County, West Virginia
Making a Sustainable County, One Building at a Time
Berkeley County, West Virginia is a unique location for business, leisure, and quality living. Major population centers and business markets within a five-hundred-mile radius of Berkeley County include Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Maryland, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Richmond, Virginia, and New York, New York. All these major markets are readily accessible from the County via Interstate 81, which bisects Berkeley County. Their geographic location places the County in a unique marketing environment, yet their quality of life is enhanced by a "small town" character and sense of community.
Berkeley County’s leaders know that Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) evaluation is important to reducing the energy usage of a building because:
Buildings consume about 40% of the energy produced in the United States.
On average, 1/3 of a building’s energy use is from HVAC.
Approximately 15% of the world’s carbon emissions (CO2e) come from the heating and cooling of buildings.
Berkeley County has made several large investments in the HVAC infrastructure at several of the Government Center campus buildings. The leaders of Berkeley County have employed strategies of evaluating life-cycle costs, which have allowed the County and its constituency to reduce energy, improve sustainability and reduce risk.
Boland is proud to have worked with Berkeley County leaders on a number of these projects, including:
Judicial Center Heating Plant: End of life replacement of two boilers. Each boiler was rated at 8,000,000 BTU output (16,000,000 total) 80% efficiency. Systems were redesigned with one boiler rated at 6,500,000 BTU output at 93% efficiency.
Dunn Building Heating Plant: End of life replacement of four boilers. Each boiler was rated at 2,700,000 BTU output (10,000,000 total) 80% efficiency. Systems were redesigned with one boiler rated at 6,500,000 BTU output at 93% efficiency.
Dunn Building Air Distribution System Upgrade: Addressed building occupant complaints of over heating/cooling. Installed energy valves to each air-handling unit and fan coil unit to regulate water flow. Installed variable frequency drives at each air-handling and fan coil unit to regulate air flow. Upgraded the building automation controls to optimize the system.
Dunn Building Cooling Plant: End of life replacement of 300-ton air-cooled chiller. Installed an ice-enhanced chiller plant. This included the installation of a 250-ton high efficiency air-cooled chiller in combination with a thermal (ice) storage system.
Berkeley County facility upgrades were carefully engineered for energy conservation and cost reduction. In the Judicial Center, EnergyStar rating increased from 47 in 2011 to 89 today. The Dunn Building increased EnergyStar rating from 73 in 2014 to an impressive 94 today!
Each of these projects has led to improved building occupant comfort and a dramatic reduction in energy consumption, as well as providing a healthy work environment for the building occupants. Each of these systems includes an extended manufacturer’s warranty, combined with a full-coverage preventive maintenance contract to mitigate risk. Each of the buildings is connected to a Trane® Tracer® Building Automation System. Boland conducts a quarterly review of the system analytics through our Applied Building Insights platform. This allows full transparency of building/system performance.
Buildings with newly installed, more sustainable HVAC equipment:
Dunn Building
Judicial Center
Sheriff's Station
911 Building
Animal Control Building
Historic Courthouse
Facilities Building
Day Report Center
Senior Center
Health Department
Continue reading:
Berkeley County Council's Dunn Building Case Study, linked here
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