Widseth Blog

Three Reasons It Might Be Time to Upgrade Your Mechanical System

Written by Eric Jendro, PE, VP - Mechanical Engineer | Oct 27, 2021 2:44:38 PM

Maintaining a comfortable environment in the different areas of your school can be challenging. These three issues might indicate it’s time to consider upgrading your mechanical system.

1. Poor indoor air quality

Are people getting sick regularly at your school? Are there funky smells and unpleasant odors? The health of your occupants is directly connected to indoor air quality.

2. Uncomfortable occupants

Do students and staff complain about being uncomfortable? Some rooms are hot while others are cold, some are damp yet others are too dry. People perform best when they’re working in a comfortable environment.

3. Inefficiency

If your system is old or parts of it are not working properly, you could be suffering from an inefficient system. This leads to increased operational and maintenance costs.

Without a properly designed HVAC system, the teachers, staff, and students in your facilities suffer. The good news is, it doesn’t have to be that way. Regardless your system’s size or complexity, Widseth’s engineers will work with you to plan and design an energy-efficient and cost-effective HVAC system.

Our engineers remain involved from planning through construction, making sure your project is constructed per industry standards and codes. The result is a system that provides a controlled environment despite our sometimes wildly varying climate while aiming to be maintainable.

Widseth’s HVAC systems planning and design services include:

Central plant systems, including sizing central boiler and chiller plants
  • Properly calculate and analyze building load
Air handling unit systems
  • Constant Volume Systems with reheat for heating zone control
  • Variable Volume Systems with reheat for heating and cooling zone control
Geothermal and conventional heat pump systems that provide heating and cooling
  • Design includes special consideration for introducing outside air into the building
Boiler system design and renovation
  • Replacement of maintenance-hungry, inefficient boilers
  • Perform heat loss load calculation for the building and size new boiler to meet existing building load

Life safety, including smoke control and alarm system shutdowns

From designing a new system to integrating updates into an existing structure, many school districts have entrusted their infrastructure to our engineers.