What was there
The existing chilled water equipment provided about 200 tons of capacity from the roof of the sixth floor. It served the air handling units throughout Building 1, the main medical center, and it had no real backup. If a piece of it failed, the building lost cooling until it was repaired.
What we designed
Alares provided the complete design for a new, fully redundant chilled water system delivering 350 tons of cooling to the air handlers across the medical center. The scope included the architectural design, the new system itself, the temporary services needed while the area is under construction, and the interface with the hospital's Johnson Controls Metasys building automation system.
The package also covered engineering calculations, construction estimates and schedules, and the design guides, manuals and operator training that let VA staff run what gets built. New England Engineering handled electrical engineering.
What fully redundant means
Redundant means there is enough equipment to carry the full cooling load with one piece of it out of service. A chiller can trip, need maintenance or fail outright, and the rest of the plant keeps the hospital at the right temperature while it is fixed.
In a hospital that matters more than comfort. Operating rooms, imaging equipment, pharmacy and labs all depend on stable temperature and humidity, so losing cooling is a clinical problem, not just a hot afternoon.
Keeping it running during the work
The old system cannot simply be shut off while the new one goes in. Designing temporary cooling for the construction period was part of the job from the start, so the hospital stays open and cooled while the work goes on.
Why it matters
Replacing 200 tons with 350 is the visible part. The real change is that the main medical center will no longer depend on every piece of its cooling equipment working at once.