Challenge

A municipal client's village hall had been served by five Carrier roof top units (RTUs) since the building was built in 2003. These RTUs provided heating, cooling, and air conditioning to each floor of the village hall. However, because of a roof design that caused the area to reach very hot temperatures, the RTUs would overheat in the cooling season causing premature HVAC failures and they needed to be replaced.

Solution

Valdes worked with the existing conditions of the roof at the village hall to improve the design for new RTUs. The original RTUs were installed in a mechanical platform area set down in an eight foot (8') deep pit and surrounded by walls on all four sides. This situation combined with the heat of the sun on the black roof material caused the pit area to sometimes reach 115-120 degrees F and the RTUs struggled to meet load or simply overheated.

Impact

Valdes not only provided the client with a design to replace the existing RTUs, but also improved the design by including a new white TPO roof to help minimize solar gain and prevent the same situation from occuring in the near future. Several considerations drove the selection of new units including tight clearances, curb heights and size and available unit configurations and Valdes was careful to consider all factors in the final design.

Services

Architecture

Structural

Mechanical

Electrical