MEP/FP
AEC was part of a team for the new Franklin County Extension Headquarters located at the Waterman Agricultural and Natural Resources Laboratory (Waterman Farm) in Columbus. The building is approximately 14,200 GSF and is split into two distinct sides. The North side of the building includes private and open offices, reception and meeting lounge spaces. The South side of the building includes multi-purpose rooms, a conference room, open lobby, and a teaching demo kitchen.
AEC was responsible for all MEP/FP engineering designs for this new building. The heating and cooling system is a variable refrigerant flow (VRF) heat recovery system consisting of outdoor heat recovery condensing units, branch selector boxes, and horizontal ducted fan coil units. There are a total of 4 zones serving the VRF system. The North side of the building spaces have set occupancy schedules for comfort control and to meet sustainability goals with the HVAC system. The South side of the building has variable occupancy schedules. Ventilation was provided through a packaged indoor dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS). The DOAS contains a heat pump coil that is integrated with the VRF system, and an electric reheat coil to temper the air.
The project is seeking LEED v4 Silver level certification with USGBC. The project owners are also interested in utilizing the AEP Rebate program for energy saving options.