Sustainability for Engineering Center

By: Siraj Khan, MSME, PE, CEM, LEED AP, CEFP

Associate Vice President for Facilities Management

Oakland University`s Engineering Center, a 134,200 square foot, five story building for the School of Engineering and Computer Science (SECS), opened in September 2014 with a construction cost of $53 Million and a total project cost of $75 Million. This building was designed to consolidate all Engineering classes in one building, increase enrollment in the SECS and renovate classrooms and labs to be compatible with cutting edge technology. In addition, the Engineering Center supports research activities for the industries in the area, provides a collaborative and connective educational and social environment, and stimulates education in the area of power, energy and sustainability. Oakland University’s Engineering Center was constructed to be an educational and research facility, to stand as a beacon of ingenuity for the campus, for Oakland County, and beyond.

The Engineering Center employs a Trigeneration system, chilled beams, heat pumps, dedicated outside air systems and a photovoltaic system to cut the annual energy cost by 30%-40% below the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standard of 90.1-2010. Two 200 kW gas-fired micro-turbine generators provide 40%-100% of the building's instantaneous power needs and 100% of net annual power consumption. Recovered energy from a 550 F turbine generator exhaust provides the majority of the building's domestic heating and water heating needs, as well as providing High Temperature Hot Water heating (HTHW) needs during spring, summer and fall to operate existing absorption water chillers that provide cooling in other campus buildings via our HTHW loop.

Trigeneration of power, heating and cooling from one energy source is complemented by the use of 400 chilled beams, extended season-free cooling, two 275 ton high efficiency magnetic bearing water cooled chiller, and one 70-ton central heat pumps, which allow the building to replace most of the typical air-based heating cooling loads with less energy-intensive, water-based systems. A Dedicated Outdoor Air System (DOAS) of 60,000 CFM feeds chilled beams and fan-coil units with 100% outside air that is efficiently produced with dual energy recovery wheels, including a 3 Angstrom total energy wheel recovering heat and water vapor from the non-hazardous exhaust air stream that is bypassed when not needed, and a desiccant wheel to lower the supply air dew point to accommodate all room latent cooling needs. Hazardous exhaust for labs employs a variable volume exhaust system with redundant, high-induction fans. Low-flow plumbing fixtures minimize the use of domestic water.

One 22-kW photovoltaic array on the penthouse roof supplements the turbine generator capacity. Other features include solar shading devices, day lighting, addressable digital lighting controls, LED fixtures accounting for 70% of lighting, electrical sub-metering, energy dashboard for display, and electric vehicle charging stations.

The Engineering Center building was designed and constructed as a sustainable building and was awarded LEED Gold certification from the USGBC Council.