70% of public schools in California are over 25 years
old and schools throughout the state are projected
to need over $100 billion for facility maintenance
and modernization. P2S has been directly
addressing this need, working with California school
districts to design updated K-12 facilities to better
serve students. Mechanical Engineer, Scott Newman
has been on the frontline of these efforts, working
on several K-12 projects, including comprehensive
modernizations, at several different school districts.
We spoke to him to learn more about the projects
he’s worked on and to take stock of the current K-12
construction landscape.
What type of K-12 projects have you been working
on recently?
Scott Newman: Recently we’ve been focusing on
HVAC projects at Long Beach Unified. LBUSD passed
a bond a couple of years ago to add air conditioning
to all its campuses that didn’t currently have it.
Back when they were planning these campuses
in the 20’s and 30’s schools just weren’t built with
air conditioning systems. Through the years that
followed they added HVAC to some of their schools,
but rumor has it that the district had a specific
boundary that they considered close enough to the
coast to not require air conditioning. That’s just not
the case anymore with temperatures reaching into
the 90s and 100s on an annual basis. We’ve done a
number of these projects recently where we design
HVAC retrofits for campuses that have never had
cooling.
Which kinds of HVAC systems are you designing for
these campuses?
SN: It varies by school. Just like with any project,
at the beginning, we take a holistic look at each
campus and see what their needs are. Decisions are
driven by cost and the capabilities of the facilities
and maintenance staff.
We’re doing a lot of packaged units and a lot of
VRF (Variable Refrigerant Flow) systems. A lot of
districts are becoming more comfortable with VRF
systems because it gives them increased efficiency
and centralizes maintenance since there’s only
one condensing unit to work on, instead of having
everything spread out over the roof. VRF systems
cost more than packaged units, that’s why some
school districts can be a bit hesitant. LBUSD was
concerned about VRF’s cost and the ability of their
staff to work on them but we were able to convince
them of the benefits.
These benefits include increased efficiency and
lower utility costs, which put dollars back in their
pockets. When a client is adding cooling at the scale
of an entire school district, it’s going to dramatically
increase their energy use. Anything we can do to
shave off a bit from their annual costs will be much
appreciated. That’s part of the service we offer, we
talk through that with clients to figure out where
their tipping point is for efficiency and where it
makes sense to just put packaged units on the room
because that’s what makes the most sense.
How many LBUSD campuses are you providing
HVAC systems for?
SN: We’ve done designs for about a dozen campuses
so far. LBUSD is splitting up the projects by regions
within their district and there’s more coming
down the pipeline. Part of our region includes the
neighborhoods immediately surrounding the P2S
Long Beach office, all the way down to Cal State
Long Beach and to the shore. Bixby Elementary,
Naples Elementary, Wilson High, Kettering
Elementary, Rogers Middle, and Bryant Elementary
are some of the schools that we’ve worked on in this
region.
Can you tell us about a notable K-12 project you’ve
worked on?
SN: The Wilson High School project is front and
center in the region and in the community. I was
the Lead Mechanical Engineer on this project, that
by name is an HVAC modernization. But we’re also
replacing all the lighting, designing new ceilings,
adding new telecom and audiovisual systems and
doing some electrical infrastructure upgrades. When
the District started up the first round of these HVAC
modernizations, they quickly realized that in order to
get to the result they really wanted, they would need
to add in the other parts. Adding ductwork led to the
new ceilings, which led to the lighting replacement
and so forth.
As for the HVAC system itself, we’re doing a
combination VRF and Dedicated Outdoor Air System
(DOAS) that covers most of the buildings at the
school, which is a huge campus. VRF systems make
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