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Meetings And Reports - February 2006 |
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Report for 2/6/2006 – 2/10/2006 – LCCC – Albany County Campus Prepared by Seth A. Carson Correspondence 2/6/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Good Morning Everyone, I wanted to take a minute to clarify my e-mail of last Thursday, Feb 2nd. It seems I have caused some confusion, and that was not my intention, so please note the following clarifications to the ACC project management process: Ø Jerry L. Harris and Bob Cox are the designated LCCC project managers. The primary contact is Jerry. Ø Seth Carson is the project consultant – Seth works directly for Bob and Jerry. Ø Phil Neal is going to be a liaison for “warranty” emergencies ONLY during the absence of Nicole Buscher and Ralph Knox while they are on vacation. I want to emphasize that Phil’s role is for EMERGENCIES ONLY so that LCCC has a campus contact, and not for normal project or warranty issues. Ø Normal project issues, communications, relations with subcontractors, etc. need to be handled through my office. Ø All warranty issues (normal or emergency) must be handled through the proper communication chain, and must be properly documented via detailed written instrument. I apologize for any misunderstanding my earlier communication caused and I hope this helps clear up any misunderstanding. Since this is an ongoing project which has unfinished work, additional work (wish lists), and a warranty period; proper communication, coordination and teamwork is essential given our limited budget. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/6/2006 – Email from Ed Bales to Team Hi Phil, Sorry it took a while to reply but I had to do a little research on this drive. Motor harmonics are unfortunately part of the VFD genre and we go to great lengths in our designs to minimize its impact. It appears that the “Telemecanique” drive has no compensation mechanism to reduce the noise like the drives we normally use. I would bet that the drive quality was likely reduced in the V.E. process. Unfortunately the high frequency noise is just about impossible to attenuate with insulation but it is worth try. I do not however know how to insulate a door without buying an entirely different door. I also suspect that some of the noise is being transferred through the gyp-board walls. We could try another drive such as the “Danfoss” product we use on the main campus but I don’t think they will even fit in the small space. In fact the Telemecanique drive may have been chosen because of the very limited space in the mechanical room. Someone let us know if we need to proceed to address the problem or if it will be referred to T.K. Ed Site Visit 2/6/2006 –Seth Carson visited the Campus Correspondence 2/6/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Phil, I just spoke with Ed on this issue, and we discussed these options: Ø Forward this to TK for review and comment, but they are probably going to tell us “it is what it is”. Ø Ed is going to look to see if we can replace the VFD with a DanFoss unit which is the college spec for VFD’s and is designed to handle noise and vibration better. Unfortunately, space and design limitations may make this impossible. Ø Ed is going to see if there is a possibility of using some type of dampening device on the pumps and VFD’s, although this possibility is remote based upon design, application and space requirements. I agree with Ed that the design was probably compromised by the contractor or sub-contractors trying to stay on budget. Between Ed and myself, we will stay on this until we can find some type of solution, but it will take some time. In the meantime, I have reviewed the drawings and there is nothing to support our position, however I did find some spec’s in the Construction Project Manual which may give us some leverage. I need to review these spec’s (vibration isolation) with Ed to see what was done and not done. Thanks for your patience Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Phil, I have attached a warranty form. In the absence of Nicole and Ralph, I am going to fax this to MSI and ask that they address this issue at their earliest convenience. Until MSI arrives, please ask the janitor check these units before they go home to make sure they don’t run all night. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi all, I know this may sound completely off the wall, but is there a way we can build a noise dampening “box” that fits over the unit with a few ventilation slats? Mybe even something made out of rigid foam board. Ed, you were right when you said we can hear the noise coming through the vibration of the walls – but that is not the bothersome noise. The bothersome noise is the loud buzz that can be heard down the hall. Just a thought. Phil Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Phil, Good idea. I will work with Ed on this as well. I do want to pursue the specification issue because the Project Manual does call for “vibration dampening” which may or may not have happened. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Seth Carson to LCCC Team Greetings, Attached are the updated punch lists as of 10:00PM last night on the East and West pods. The commons area and corridors punch lists will be updated at the end of today. The painter stated that he is still working in those areas today and I will wait to see what he accomplishes today before I send out the lists. Overall, a lot of progress has been made. I must though; I am still not pleased with the overall drywall work. I have been coming in at night recently to review Ralph’s work. Less students to deal with! Anyways, the drywall patches and defects are twice as visible at night. I am not pleased the way the walls look. Very few walls look to met specification. The work was very poor and I would urge LCCC to rectify this with TK. Also, the windows are really leaking dirt bad since the caulking is completed. Red dirt is becoming an issue. I would urge the Cheyenne folks to come in at night and look around. If it were my place, I would make Scott reprime, medium texture, and paint the walls with three coats of paint. I realize that this is probable not going to happen, so I will continue to point out major things and update the list as work progresses. Best Wishes, Seth Carson Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi again, Does the painter, who is here right now, need the list of what to paint? He does not seem sure of what he needs to do. Phil Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Seth Carson to LCCC Team Greetings, During my punch walk last night, I noticed that heat pump number one is not cooling rooms W110 and W109. I had the janitor let me in the server so could check actual room temperature on the controls. The room temperature was 89.9 degrees. The janitor stated that the problem has been happening for about a week. He also stated that the night classes had to be relocated because the class couldn’t take place. I remember Bob Berry stating that most jobs of this size usually have 1-2 heat pumps go bad with the first month. I checked the status of the reversing value, the call for cooling, and all the sensors in the controls. I compared them with other heat pumps. The settings were correct from my limited knowledge of the controls. I would guess that the heat pump needs to have a warranty maintenance check up. I have copied air comfort on this. Since class need to use this room, I would request that the issue be pursued and resolved ASAP. One other thing too, the filter on heat pump 15 doesn’t appear to be install correctly. The screw thing again or the wrong size filter, I don’t know but it needs to be resolved soon so that the heat pump is not damaged. Cheers, Seth Carson Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Seth Carson to LCCC Team Greetings, Just wanted to let you know that Phil called me and asked if he should give the painter the new punch list. I told Phil that we be very helpful. Just wanted to let you know that Phil is utilizing the proper chain of command. Thanks Phil!! Seth Carson Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi all, The Air Comfort Tech has checked 3 pumps for us this morning. Heat pump #1 is working now. There was a wire on the 3-way valve which had come loose. Heat pumps 10 and 13 had stats set at 75 but the control system was saying the room temp was 65, and the faculty offices which they feed were cold. The tech said both units were locked out for some reason. HP 10 had one of the water line valves shut off and he thinks that there was a water leak and someone must have shut it off, the unit over-pressured and locked itself out. He has reset them and we are watching the temp to see if it rises. He is now going to look at the noisy air exchanger. Phil Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Seth Carson to LCCC Team Phil, I like your idea about the box. I would make the following suggestions. That the box be ventilated, but a minimum. Also, a flexible air duct (like a dryer vent pipe) for cooing and venting could be used. Maybe two pipes per box and one box per pump. The tubes could snake up the ceiling area and the long run of pipe would serve to dampen the sound, but allow for air flow. I would suggest and temp. gauge be placed inside the box, (10 dollar Wal-Mart ones with the wire and led display) and be monitored closely. The box should be made of some material that is fire proof are resistant and be easily lifted off. I would see in Tim Nyquist could built a box out of light metal studs, 2x6 batt and ¼” plywood for stiffing. Well there is my idea, Seth Carson Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Matt Rausch to Team I have a guy up there looking at it. I will let you know what he finds. Matt Rausch, CEO Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi everyone, I just spoke with Jim at MSI and John Guerin from Coal Creek Coffee company. John will have the plumbing supplies on sight tomorrow and Jim will have plumbers here on Thursday to complete the install. Phil Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Seth Carson to Matt Rausch Matt, Thanks for you prompt and professional reply. Also, what is the verdict on the East pod ERV noise problem? Last I heard was that the sheet roof decking metal was rubbing the unit and that the ERV door was not tight. This a major concern of LCCC. It needs to be resolved soon. Thanks, Seth Carson Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi Seth, Randy, Air Comforts tech, is checking that out as we speak. I am not sure what he has found because he is up on the roof. I will let you know as soon as I hear something. Phil Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Matt Rausch to Team He is working on it. I will let you know what he finds. Matt Rausch, CEO Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hello, The tech found some papers and garbage which had been sucked up into the "birdcage". He removed it and it does sounds a little better but is still loud. We compared it to the sound of the erv on the west wing and it is still louder than that one. Other than that, he was not able to diagnose a problem. Phil Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Ed Bales to Team Will not work and will be a maintenance nightmare. This equipment needs to self ventilate and is designed to do that with ambient air. The pumps also require routine inspection and service as does everything else in the room. Where are you going to put this box and other stuff to allow the techs to do there work? I anticipate a problem in the summer anyway. As I noted earlier the room is too small to dissipate heat as is. There are a bunch of heat producers in the room including the VFDs. You could put an AC unit in the room and duct it to the box using an outside condensing unit but this is big bucks and I do not know where you will find the space. We will examine options as soon as possible. Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team HI again, The Air Comfort tech and I are starting to look at all the heat pumps now that we have found numerous pumps locked out. I went through the CW control software and found numerous pumps where the room temperature was more than 2 degrees outside of the heating/cooling set points - and sure enough, those were the ones which were locked out. He thinks it is caused by the switching of the VFD's. Since we have started occupancy, every week or so the VFD's have been in an on or off position - one VFD is on when the other is off. When the "on" VFD is turned off and the "off" VFD is switched on, there is enough time when the VFD which ramps down and the second VFD ramps up that the pressure drops and makes the heat pumps lock themselves out due to lack of pressure. From what I understand we have two VFD so we can switch back and forth and make them last longer. But we can not do it on a weekly basis. Also, he recommends that when we do switch from one VFD to another, that we turn the breakers off to all heat pumps, make the switch, and turn the breakers back on. Otherwise, Air Comfort will be back out here every time we switch VFDs. The lucky thing is that the tech can fairly easily reset the pumps and there is no damage. The second problem (if I understand it correctly) we have found is that several heat pumps have equipment which was not completely installed. On each heat pump there is an electronic valve (flow regulator) which shuts down or opens up the water supply depending on what is called for. On one heat pump (#26)(and the tech made a phone call and found out that there are more in the building like it), that the valve (flow regulator) is dangling from a wire which is attached to the heat pump. The valve is not hooked into the water line at all - it is just hanging there. This means that water cannot be shut off to the heat pump, and it continuously runs through the compressor - this means the compressor life is shortened. Also, heat pump #26 had the water supply shut off by a manual valve because of a leaky test fitting. So, in this pump, the only way to get heating/cooling is to get in the ceiling and turn the manual valve on and off. Once you do this, the heat pump works fine. He is working on a temporary fix to solve the water leak, and then he can turn the manual water valve back on so that we can get heat. But, we are back to original issue of not having an electronic valve which handles this automatically. At this point, I am not sure which pumps throughout the building have the same issue as pump #26. He said he would like to go through all the heat pumps and check them. From looking at the control software online, I think we may only have one other heat pump (#16) which could be locked out. I will have him check this one next. I will be back in touch with today's total on heat pump issues after I speak with him. Phil Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Seth and Phil, I would be careful about going directly to subcontractors with punch list items that can be handled through normal channels, which is to go through Taylor Kohrs. The lines of responsibility and accountability could easily become gray and I prefer to stay away from such situations. Critical items such as power failures and heat pump issues which affect life safety are being handled correctly at this point, given the absence of Nicole and Ralph, but I do intend to write up a detailed warranty report for all concerned. I hope this helps. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Everyone, I appreciate everyone's ideas and suggestions regarding this problem, which have all been forwarded to Ed Bales for his review and research. In the meantime, I have asked Ed to review the overall situation and make some recommendations. I will also work with Nicole upon her return to see what can be done from TK's end. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi all, The Air Comfort tech told me that HP's 24, 25, 26, and 27 are the ones with the flow regulator valves which are not installed in the water line. According to someone he spoke with at the office (Kevin I think), there was a flow pressure problem and the heat pumps kept locking up. By taking those flow valves out, it solved one problem and created a second. But, he has a simple solution to fix the valves and will be back tomorrow to fix all four, reinstall them the correct way, and he wants to go through every heat pump to make sure they are all correct. There is one question I had regarding the setpoints on the pumps. Some of the rooms have the heating setpoints at 74 degrees and cooling at 78 degrees. That seems like an awefully warm room. Other rooms are in the range of 66 degrees to 70 degrees. I may not completely understand this setpoint business, but thought I would ask to see if we should look at readjusting so that rooms won't be running so warm - that means energy savings. Phil Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team He checked it out and found garbage and paper sucked into the birdcage. He cleaned it out and it sounds a little better but still noisy. We compared it to the sound of the other one and they are close. The noisy erv is in a smaller room than the other one and I wonder if that is causing part of the problem. Phil Correspondence 2/7/2006 – Email from Seth Carson to Jerry Harris Jerry, Attached is the scope of work that I will be presenting Jim at our meeting at 11:00AM Wed. regarding the easement plan and parking design. Please review it in the morning and let me know if I am missing something. I believe it is clear enough to get the ball rolling. I will then turn it over to you to receive the quotes and the PO stuff and work with Aspen directly after tomorrow. Cheers, Seth Carson Correspondence 2/8/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Good Morning Everyone, Please find attached the warranty reports I am aware of to date. In all cases, I am asking that each report be finalized with written resolution reports by item. Per our earlier agreement, life safety items (emergencies) have been handled via direct contact between LCCC and the appropriate TK subcontractor. Upon the return of Nicole Buscher and Ralph Knox, LCCC will return the standard reporting method for all warranties. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/8/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi everyone, Coal Creek Coffee Company started moving their equipment into the coffee bar this morning. They will need a lock on that door, and it currently does not have one. We can swap the door handle out with the door handle on the storage closet in the Admin suite. The admin suite storage room door has its own key therefore, we will not need to give Coal Creek a master key. How should we go about getting these swapped out without voiding any warranty issues, and without having to buy a whole new door handle and lock? Thanks Phil Correspondence 2/8/2006 – Email from Tim Macnamara to Phil Neal Phil- Rick Bonnema and Jim Zell are at ACC today taking inventory. We asked Rick to find you after lunch and see if he can swap out the two locksets you are talking about. If he is able to it, we need to know exactly what rooms you swapped locksets, we need to keep track for the key inventory. Tim Correspondence 2/8/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Thanks Tim, They have it completed and I have told John Guerin he can check out a key from Janine. Phil Correspondence 2/8/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi all, I had mentioned a toilet which had a handle that would get stuck when flushed. It is the left (east) urinal in room 109. Mike from MSI will be here tomorrow and I can have him check it, but I thought I would let you know for warrantee purposes. Phil Correspondence 2/8/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi all, I was talking with the Air Comfort Tech and he recommended that we add see-through plastic lock boxes on all of the thermostats to keep people from flipping the temp up and down so much. What do you think? I know this means more money but it may help in long term maintenance. I remember the CW control techs telling us that he set each heat pump to lock itself out if there were more than 6 thermostat changes in any given hour. Phil Correspondence 2/8/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Thanks Phil, I will add this info to the warranty form Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/8/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Phil, I will defer this to Tim and Ed. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/8/2006 – Email from Eileen Ely to Team Hi Phil, Although I have no idea of the costs involved, I would recommend putting the plastic lock boxes over the thermostats—at least in the classrooms. Without this feature, any instructor or student can shift the control lever, which could eventually result in the heat pump locking itself out. I just see maintenance dollar signs. Eileen Correspondence 2/8/2006 – Email from Seth Carson to LCCC Team Hi, I met with Jim at Aspen-Banner again this morning. It appears that the parking lot should be a slam dunk for Jim and his staff. They will be preparing a quote for their services. Jim stated that Jerry should have a proposal in hand by the 15th. If LCCC chooses to sign them up, they will have the design done by the end of the month. This will have the necessary information for the building permit and bidding. Also, I have visited with the city and they have made the following comments: 1. The retention pond appears to be adequate and most likely will not need to be enlarged. 2. An additional parking row to the east will require proper grading, adequate lighting and need to be paved before use. Also the row will need to have two methods of ingress/egress. In short, an exit at both ends like the other existing rows is required. 3. Additional parking will require curbs. In my meeting with Jim, he stated that the drainage swale to the east of the lot will mostly have to stay put. The design will consist of an exit and entrance to the north and south sides. 3-4 spots will be lost on the north side to accommodate the new row entrance. A net of 50 parking spots is to be added. The drainage swale will need culverts under the two entrances and under the pedestrian breezeways. The entrance will need to be sloped to allow the new lot to be elevated and accommodate the natural grade on the hill. A total of 3-8 lights may need to be added to meet the photometric requirements. In summary, Jim’s service will be the draw the top view of the lot which will mirror the existing lot. He will also specify the grade points. As you know, I have ask him to assist in designing a solution that will work for either asphalt or the pervious concrete material that Phil and I are looking at for grant money. All in all, if the price is right with the contractors, I don’t see any major problems with having the new lot put in this late spring. Jim will be providing a cost estimate for both the concrete and asphalt paving parking lot total costs. It also sounds like no site survey work will be need since the topo is already in their computer. I have also spoken with Fremont Electric. They are ready and willing to assist with the additional lighting and pv/wind conduit extension under the new lot. Don stated the new lights don’t take very long to get in. I will make sure that Fremont gets a copy of the final design so that Jerry can get prices from them to put in more lights. Also, attached is a sample easement document I found during the last city council meeting. In short, it appears that a document needs to be drafted granting Farm Bureau access through LCCC property. Jerry, could you send Jim Cavalli at Aspen-Banner jic@laramierange.com the Exhibit A and B for MWFB letter agreement from 12-9-2005. It appears that a small easement will be needed for Qwest since their line passes under the MWFB boulevard and dead ends on LCCC property. I have given Jim the maps from Kinder Morgan and Qwest. This easement should grant KM to work on the gas line on both MWFB and LCCC property. Easement should also be granted for the City to work on the water line since it goes through both properties. Hope that update helps, Seth Carson Correspondence 2/9/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Seth, Thanks for the report and update. I will work on getting the documents you mentioned below as time permits. In the meantime, I was to make sure that everyone understands that LCCC will be handling the parking lot expansion, and that all work will be bid per LCCC policy and procedures. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/9/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Everyone, LCCC personnel have identified the faulty toilet, I have updated the warranty report to reflect this. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/9/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi everyone, Have we made a decision on the types of blinds we will be installing on the ACC? Thanks for helping. Phil Correspondence 2/8/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Phil, Tim is reviewing the bids and has some questions. He is going to call you. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/9/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team HI all, Ralph had mentioned that CPS Interiors were going to send us some drawings of their solution to the caulking joint which was completed between each end of the commons bench and the rock walls. The caulking is a very large caulk joint and is unsightly. At the last punch list walk through, we asked Ralph to fix this. I have a faxed copy of what they propose. Who needs to see this? I am not overly impressed with this drawing because, as you will see, they are putting some scribed molding on the bench and backrest only. This will take care of the caulking joint for those two sections, but there is caulking which runs above the seat (where the heat registers are) and below the bench (where the kick plate is). Let me know who would like this faxed to them. Phil Correspondence 2/10/2006 – Email from Seth Carson to LCCC Team Greetings, Attached is the spreadsheet for the activity on ground loop well pumps. Phil and I have been tracking the energy usage and run times for the well pumps. As you know, only one well pump VFD controller should be active at anyone time. A couple of times, when CW and Bob Berry have been around, both wells have been turn on. I am not blaming anyone!! Heh, heh. Although this shouldn’t hurt the system, it is wasteful. Also, the pump controllers are not programmed to toggle back and forth. As a result, I have been switching the pumps back and forth to wear them evenly, every 3-6 days or so. The green rows on the spreadsheet indicate the date the pumps were switched. It has not been indicated to me the status of the maintenance person, so I have gladly been changing the pumps. Never thought I would be babysitting an aquifer!! Anyways, Phil has been assisting me in the record keeping and checking the sand separator. The sand has really cleaned up and is almost none existent. I will point out that sand is mostly found the day after the pumps are switched. I will continue this activity of switching the pumps until I am asked to stop. It is really no big deal, I kind of like it. FYI Phil, the wells were switched today and a new log spreadsheet is in the pump room. Also, now that we have a little data, I spent a couple hours calculating the average daily well pump runtime and average daily kwh cost. I then did a quick and dirty calculation/comparison to the average daily temperatures this past month. I then used the energy modeling that was reported which stated that the ACC building would be in heating mode for 3.5 months and in cooling mode for 8.5. I then used weather.com to obtain the daily average monthly temperatures for the entire year. Based on all that information combined with the January data, I came up with an average yearly daily well run time of 9 hours, with the highest daily runtime in Dec.-Jan. of 14 hours and the lowest in October with 3 hours. Using this logic, this should costs LCCC around $2600 per year to run the geo-well pumps. Comparing this to a standard building consuming gas by a boiler/chiller all year around, the geo-well part of the system will have a 10.9 year payback period. This includes ALL design/consultant/well construction costs of geo side of the system. With gas prices going up, I would guess that the DOE’s investment on the wells will have broken even in 8 years. This does not include the heat pump energy costs. Food for thought for the UW folks; I see two statistical coefficients/correlations that are needed to satisfy my numbers and hypothesis. I believe that this information should come out of your research. Two coefficients should be created to fit into the following equations. Cooling Equation; Average Daily Temp X HES Cooling Coefficient = Average Daily Well Pump Run Time (Summer). The pump run time is the number of hours that the ACC needs to be exchanging energy with the earth. Heating Equation; Average Daily Temp X HES Heating Coefficient = Average Daily Well Pump Run Time (Winter). This coefficient would be a useful tool for designers to compare and correlate with heating/cooling loads of building and modeling the ground loop design/performance with the earth’s static ground temperature when evaluating a “pump and dump” system. To calculate the a geo-system payback period you would need the ground thermal conductivity coefficient, static ground water temperature, building loads, energy transfer rate and flow rates between building and ground loop (this would be calculated when determining the maximum exchange rate for the coldest and hottest days of the year, just a little thermodynamics), average daily temperature and the two coefficients. I may be missing something, but it will be interested to see what UW’s data can do for future projects. I personally am interested in the economics of future geo-exchange projects. Good analysis could help sell this type of system to financers of future projects. Overall, the DOE should be pleased with this information and future design guidelines that UW should produce. Hope this stuff is fun for you to think about, I sure enjoy it. Cheers, Seth Carson Correspondence 2/10/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team
Hi Seth, Correspondence 2/10/2006 – Email from Seth Carson to Jerry Harris Jerry, Attached is the up-to-date punch list for the commons area. As you can see there is still a fair amount of work to be completed. This leads into my next questions; no work except the painters on Monday and Tuesday and Air Comfort mid-week has been worked on. With the open house on Thursday, I suggest that LCCC require that TK complete some things before then. I don’t know when Ralph or Nicole will be back so I may be dreaming. I have not punched anything in the corridors as the slip joint that Ralph stated would be complete has not even be started. I would suggest at a minimum that the painters return to perform the touch ups in the corridors and that the upper commons area windows be cleaned. They look terrible. Other than that the place should be ok for Thursday. Eileen and Phil, I you know of something that is critical for Thursday, let Jerry and I know ASAP. Just curious, will the coffee bar be ready for the open house? Cheers, Seth Carson Correspondence 2/11/2006 – Email from Seth Carson to LCCC Tim and Ed, I wanted ask you both a question about the controls. As I understand it, the building does not need to bring in makeup air when it is unoccupied. Specifically, the ERV’s and preheaters are running at night when no one is around. Unless it is really hard on the ERV’s, they should be turned off or down between 10:00PM and 7:00am. This in turn would and should put the preheaters to bed in the winter at night. I would guess that this will cut the preheater gas bill by a lot. Plus the heat pumps would not be trying to heat outside cold makeup air. I think that this would help Ed’s concern about the preheater/heat pump shut off if the building drops below 50 degrees. What I don’t know is if the air will circulate through the plenum then through the ERV and back to the heat pumps? When the ERV is off, does it shut the outside vents? Can air get back to the heat pumps to condition if the ERV is sleeping? Just curious. Seth Carson Report for 2/13/2006 – 2/17/2006 – LCCC – Albany County Campus Prepared by Seth A. Carson Correspondence 2/13/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Seth, I have not heard from Nicole, so I am not sure if she is back or not. I agree that Taylor Kohrs should do as much as possible before the open house, but I have not heard from either Ralph or Nicole. I have asked for proposed schedules related to punch lists, and the remaining scopes of work, but have not received the final schedules yet. Regarding the coffee bar, I don't know where we stand on finishing the room. I know that work is progressing, but I am not sure if it will be ready for Thursday. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/13/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi all, Ralph is back today but I have not had a chance to visit with him yet. The coffee bar needs some drywall patching, and staining the counter that Tim Nyquist built. He easily could have finished it by Thursday but Tim's son (LCCC graduate) broke a femur snowmobiling this weekend. He was life-flighted to Denver and they are not sure if they can save his leg. So, Tim is in Denver and not sure when he will be back. We will keep you updated. The plumber from MSI should be finishing up today. Seth, do you have any more of those charts we using to track the sand in the mechanical room - We are out? Phil Correspondence 2/13/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi all, I am not sure we want a whole bunch of subs running around here past tomorrow. We are trying to get the place cleaned up and set up for the open house. I really don't want them making a mess on top of what we have cleaned. Phil Correspondence 2/13/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Phil, I agree. In the meantime, I will attempt to set up a meeting with Nicole and Ralph to establish some type of schedule regarding the punch list items and the remainder of the outside scopes of work. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/13/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi all, I just went over the punch list with Ralph and several of the things on the list seem to be done. Is this an old list? It seems like most of them are from the last walk-thru, and there has been some work completed since then. Phil Correspondence 2/13/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi all,
Phil Correspondence 2/13/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Phil, I did not do a follow-up walk-thru, I presume that Seth did this. Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/13/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi all,
Phil Correspondence 2/13/2006 – Email from Bob Cox to Team Hi Phil – Tim and I are meeting about the blinds and based on the budget, the cost and opaque light characteristics, we recommend the mini-blinds (save about $3,700). This is fairly standard issue for us and is not much of a maintenance issue. It can be a cleaning issue but as you may recall we have had a contract to clean the blinds using an ultrasonic method. Thanks Bob Correspondence 2/13/2006 – Email from Ed Bales to Team Sorry I have not replied to this right away but we are up to our eyeballs. Our control design usually only permits 4 degrees of adjustment (you may have 5). This is limited in the software at my direction. In fact most campus building with LCCC designed controls do even have adjustments and one of the office staff, in the division, make required adjustments when needed which is rare. We probably should implement that in Laramie. I thought having an adjustable stat would be best. Bad idea huh!. So turning the stat up and down is probably not why we are having problems with the heat pumps because of the narrow allowable range. I believe I know why and I have been resetting pumps from my desktop on a regular basis. I reset 104 and 113 on Friday. The rooms were very cold. I’ll keep you posted. Ed Correspondence 2/13/2006 – Email from Nicole Buscher to Team Jerry, Spoke with Ralph this morning. He's going to coordinate a meeting with Seth to review the outstanding work. Ralph currently has calls into contractors to be on site tomorrow and finish up misc items. Thank you, Nicole Correspondence 2/13/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team
Hi all, Correspondence 2/14/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Thanks Phil. I will write a warranty report Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/14/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Nicole and Seth, Numerous cracks have appeared in rooms W-206 and W-205. I have updated Warranty report accordingly. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/15/2006 – Email from Tim Macnamara to Team Jerry, Thanks for the update. I paid the permit fee when I delivered the permit application last week. Rebecca Gonzales received my payment and issued a receipt. Regarding the covenant letter, the document has been written and sent to the other tract tenants for review and signature. I will get you a copy upon receipt of all signatures. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/15/2006 – Email from Craig Engelbrecht to Seth Carson Seth, Hope all is going well. I just wanted to touch base to see if you have heard any confirmation on the DOE grant. Look forward to talking to you soon.
Thank you and have a great day, Correspondence 2/15/2006 – Email from Tim Macnamara to Team Phil- We think we have hp # 12 & 13 going again and the room temps seem to be rising. We are not sure about #16 & 27, we are watching them, but we may have to have them manually reset which involves calling Air Comfort and asking them to reset the heat pumps. They will charge us because we are the apparently causing the heat pumps to lock out by altering the pressure in the building loop when we switch the VFD’s for the loop pumps. Please ask Seth the next time you see him to not switch the building loop pumps until we get the building controls finished. Tim Correspondence 2/15/2006 – Email from Seth Carson to Team Tim and Phil, I have never switched the building VRD pumps, I do even know how to do that. I am just alternating the well pumps. They have nothing to do or can control the building controls, building pumps, or associated pressure drops. The well pumps are on one side of the closed heat exchanger. There is no way they would create the heat pump reset problem. I my opinion it is important to keep switching well pumps. Also, the VRD thing is all air comfort and cw. This is a warranty and operation issue that LCCC should not even have to deal with. I would recommend that they solve this problem. Also, the controls and all of the option that CW stated that they would provide are not finished. Taylor Kohrs needs to complete the controls package as request and documented in our controls meetings. I would be happy to provide the control to-do list if requested. Till this point, I have assumed the Ed has been working with CW to complete the list. It maybe that Ed does not have the list and doesn't know what to complete. Until the list is complete, I would not recommend that TK be paid in full this work. Cheers, Seth Carson Correspondence 2/15/2006 – Email from Tim Macnamara to Team Seth- I assume we have included the "controls to do list" in the various punch lists that have been forwarded to TK? Ed is not here today and may already have the "controls to do list", but if its not too much trouble, would you send me a copy. Does this list also identify the controls and information you need from CW for the energy grant? Thanks, Tim Correspondence 2/16/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Seth Carson Hi Seth, I am not sure if what you are doing by switching things in the mechanical room is absolutely causing the problem with the heat pumps or not. The tech gave me an explanation which seemed to be sound and it coincided with you switching the pumps. Also, once the heat pumps were fixed the first time, they were fine until you switched the pumps again - then they locked out almost immediately. So maybe it was coincidence. But since we are the ones who have to live with the heat and cold problems, I am asking that we not mess with the system until either TK or Air Comfort gets the problem fixed. Sorry if I sound a little angry but we are in the middle of getting set up for the grand opening and we can't be doing anything, intentionally or accidentally, which causes us to have problems. And until you switched the pumps, things were running perfectly (as far as I know). Thanks for listening and I will see everyone later today. Phil Correspondence 2/16/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi there, Do the ERVs ever shut down on their own? I noticed this morning that the noisy ERV in the computer classroom 118 was not on. Then I checked the one on the TLC computer lab and did not hear that one either. It is nice because they are quiet but I have not heard them turned off before and wondered it they were accidentally turned off, turned off intentionally or if they are not working. I did check the electrical breakers and they are in the “on” position. Phil Correspondence 2/16/2006 – Email from Tim Macnamara to Team Phil- The ERV’s should not shut down, they provide the outside air for the building which is required by code. The units do have safety switches and will shut down if there is a problem. Looking at the computer, the ERV’s appeared to be off this morning, we don’t know why. We have manually turned them back on and they seem to be working correctly right now, but we are not sure why they were off. Did you experience any power outages, spikes, or flickers since yesterday that might have interrupted the unit operation? Another thought we had was the filters in the unit on the roof may be frozen so there is no air flow through the unit which would cause the unit to trip off. Let me know if they go off again. Tim Correspondence 2/17/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi Tim and Ed, Could you check heat pumps 6, 21, and 25? They are running cold again. Also, someone (probably a delivery truck) hit one of our light posts yesterday. I think it must have been a large truck because of how high off of the ground the damage occurred. It did not bend the light pole but it must have caught the top (10 foot light pole) of the pole where the light fixture is mounted because the fixture is bent to the side. The light fixture still works and is still securely mounted to the pole – I did not even notice it until the electrician pointed it out. I can only remember two vehicles which were tall enough to hit the fixture that high up and neither of them were parked in such a way that it would have bent the fixture in the direction it is bent in. What should we do? Jerry, The locksmith was here this morning and fixed the lock in room 206. Correspondence 2/17/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Phil, Regarding the light fixture damage, I have some questions: Ø Is the fixture repairable and/or adjustable or does it need to be replaced? Ø If a delivery truck caused this type of damage, is it correct to assume that it will probably happen again because of location and design? Ø Is there any way to check the delivery trucks for damage, providing we know the firms and which truck was involved? If you have time, I would appreciate a few electronic pictures to help understand the overall situation. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/17/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi Jerry, The light looks to be repairable. I will have Lynnette send you a couple of pictures – my computer does not have disk drive which accommodates the camera. I did not see any paint on the light which may have rubbed off of a delivery truck. The only trucks large enough to have hit it are the PATS bus, the dairy delivery, and the garbage truck. But I don’t think it was the trucks fault. The light pole in question is in the Flagpole Island. It is the light pole directly south of the flagpole. There are two light poles in this island. I remember in our first exterior walkthrough, you had mentioned to Nicole that we were unhappy with the way that both the concrete mounts for the two light poles in the flagpole island were not symmetrically installed. The concrete pad for the light pole on the south of the island was directly up against the curb, and the concrete mount for the north light pole was set back from the curb a foot or so. Now, since the concrete mount for the south light pole is so close to the curb, the light fixture hangs beyond the curb and into the traffic lane. Because of this, a vehicle has hit it. It was not due to someone driving recklessly – it is due to the light pole being placed in the wrong spot. Let me know what you think. Eileen and I were talking about it and we think that since we brought that up to TK and it is on record, that this is their issue to fix. And we think that they should not only fix the light, but they should move the concrete mount back away from the curb. Otherwise we will continue to see this problem time and time again. Phil Correspondence 2/17/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Phil, Your comments below are an accurate assessment of this problem. I agree that this is specification and contract issue, so I am asking that this item be put on hold for the moment while I work with Nicole Buscher in an effort to resolve the problem. Please leave the light fixture as is for now until I get back to you. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/17/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Good Day Everyone, I agree that a meeting should take place, but ONLY with Taylor Kohrs present since they are the contractor and may be impacted by what is discussed by their subcontractors. I believe that there are some "gray" areas of responsibility and accountability which at present need to be discussed and defined. I will be glad to set-up a meeting if that is everyone's desire. I await our suggestions. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/17/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi Seth, I just spoke with Harvey Ridgeway at Mountain West Farm Bureau and he needs their set of signed covenant drawings that you borrowed. Thanks Phil Report for 2/20/2006 – 2/24/2006 – LCCC – Albany County Campus Prepared by Seth A. Carson Correspondence 2/20/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi all, I am sorry that I keep sending you emails about problems with the building – we really do love it. 1. We have had a rattle in the west wall of the pump room (you hear it in the hallway more so than in the pump room). I have checked all the pipe connections and mounting brackets in the pump room and all seem to be secure. Tim Laughlin was here on Friday and heard the noise – it seems to happen when the pumps are pumping water from the wells. He thinks it is one of the pieces of conduit inside the wall that was not properly secured to the studs. Tim said someone should be able to go up to the ceiling and secure the conduit to something and stop the rattling. 2. Related to this rattle is the amount of shake we have noticed in the whole mechanical room. When the pump is on, it makes everything in the room shake so much that I had to put a paper wedge between the electrical box door and its frame to quiet it. I know we should expect some rattling and this may be normal, but I thought that since we are needing to have the mechanical system checked out they could check this also. 3. On the east patio (east door) there is a missing piece of aluminum molding around one of the door windows. This is also the same door that is off kilter and causing rubbing problems between both doors at this entry. Have a great day. Phil Correspondence 2/20/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Tim or Ed, Could you check heat pumps 3, 10 and 21. They are not heating. Could you reset them for us. The rest of the building is doing great but we have some frozen faculty and staff. Thanks Phil Correspondence 2/20/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Nicole, Forgot to attach warranty form. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/20/2006 – Email from Tim Macnamara to Team Phil- We reset the 3 heat pumps and #3 & 10 have responded well and the space is heating up. #21 didn’t respond as well, its heating up but not as quickly. Tim Correspondence 2/21/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Nicole, Please find attached Warranty Report #8. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/22/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Nicole, I don't know for sure if maintenance has checked this particular toilet. I will ask and get back to you. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Jerry, has maintenance looked at the toilet? MSI suggested that they 1st check for any loose nuts on the toilet which may have caused the toilet to start leaking. As with any warranty item, maintenance needs to be a once-over before we send it on as a warranty item. This will help protect the college from any expenses that would result in a service call charge if not found to be warranted. Thanks, Nicole Correspondence 2/22/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Nicole, Please review the below response in regards to your request related to the leaking toilet in the East Pod staff bathroom. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Hi Jerry, I checked the nuts holding the toilet down and they are tight. We have also checked the pipes going into the toilet to see if there was a loose water pipe and there does not seem to be any water leaking from there either. The interesting thing is that the toilet has caulking around the base but the water is still coming up from the bottom some how. Hope this helps. Phil Correspondence 2/23/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi all, We have had a few things come up which I thought I would ask everyone about. First, One of the banks in town would like to put an ATM on our campus. Do we have to send out an RFP for this? Second, Does anyone remember how we decided to screen the transformer on the west side of the building. I know it is a covenant issue and that it was supposed to be screened with masonry. But, I thought I also remembered us talking about using pine trees in place of the masonry wall. If it is masonry, we may want to have TK get this going. Third, The Laramie Fire Department was here for a tour yesterday – they said to send their congratulations on a job well done. They did have one request. Since the Knox box (the lock box on the outside of the building which holds the exterior door key) is located on the east patio and the door to the electrical room is on the west side of that same pod, they asked if we could put a second knox box outside the electrical room door. Their rationale was that if they needed to quickly get into the electrical room when the building was one fire, they would have to go around to the east patio, get the key, and then run around to the other side of the building to get into the electrical room. If they had a box next to the exterior electrical room door, they could get into the room quicker and manage the situation much more quickly. Thanks and have a great day. Phil Correspondence 2/23/2006 – Email from Bob Cox to Team Hi Phil – Since our banking service is provided by ANB, they have been our provider of the ATM machine here. My thought is that we should ask them first. One other issue is that the ATM machine here required a dedicated phone line. I assume the location would be in the commons so we would need to identify a location. If ANB is not interested, then I recommend an RFP. First, we may want to ask whether we want a machine on campus. The bank will want to have some idea of the demand also. The plans show an enclosure around the transformer similar to the trash enclosure (Sheet A110). With regard to the fire department issue, I don’t have a problem with meeting their request but need a cost to add to our list of expenses to be approved. Thanks Bob Correspondence 2/23/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Thanks Bob, I will talk with Eileen about the ATM – we definitely have plenty of phone lines in the commons. Also, the second crew of the fire department was just here for a tour (there are 3 crews we are giving tours to over this week) and they thought it would be nice if all the rooms which have electrical panels could have some designation on the room sign. I am not sure we need this since they should be able to shut down power to the whole building from the main power room. But I told them I would bring it up. Thanks for your feedback. Phil Correspondence 2/23/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Jerry, Has TK given us an estimated completion date on this enclosure, or is that something which will need to wait until the weather is nicer? The other question I have is that there are contractors all over town completing masonry block and stucco projects. Why is ours any different? Is this a preference of the college – to wait until weather is a little warmer? Thanks Phil Correspondence 2/23/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Phil, see my answers below Jerry L. Harris Jerry, Has TK given us an estimated completion date on this enclosure, or is that something which will need to wait until the weather is nicer?[Harris, Jerry] I have asked Taylor Kohrs on at least two (2) occasions via written instrument (Jan 17th and Jan 31st) for the following information: a) final punch lists showing LCCC acceptance for both pods and building exterior; b) a schedule for completion of punch list corrections; c) a schedule for unfinished exterior work; d) a written document showing that the City of Laramie deficiency list was addressed and corrected; e) a written document showing that the MKK punch list was addressed and corrected; f) a written electrical punch list; g) Bob Berry’s deficiency list was addressed and corrected; and h) final punch list for commons, showing corrections made and accepted by LCCC. In addition, I have written eight (8) Warranty Reports and am short many “Submittal Packages”. To date, I have received none of this information. I intend to write an RFI requesting this data and a timetable to accomplish same. I will copy everyone on this document. The other question I have is that there are contractors all over town completing masonry block and stucco projects. Why is ours any different?[Harris, Jerry] Because Taylor Kohrs is the contractor. Is this a preference of the college – to wait until weather is a little warmer?[Harris, Jerry] NO, it is a Taylor Kohrs decision. Thanks [Harris, Jerry] It is my opinion that now we have moved in, Taylor Kohrs has moved LCCC to the bottom of the food chain. I will do whatever is possible to correct this situation. Thanks for your patience. Phil Correspondence 2/24/2006 – Email from Ed Bales to Team Hi Phil, A little late returning E-Mails. Overwhelmed!. When the ground loop pumps are operating properly on the motor drives. they will be running longer at a lower speed. This will greatly reduce the vibration and noise. At present because of the way Watson and Gould set them up they come on full speed and just run. Bob felt this was OK. Because Seth is likely still, alternating them the water inrush noise from one pump at a time will also be bad. We will get this all corrected. Concerning the noise from the building loop pumps we have determined that the installation does spec but the drive characteristics are such that the motors are noisy. We will be looking at replacing them with the drive we normally use. Tim and I will schedule a visit with you and Seth on an approach to resolving these and some of the other issues as soon as possible. Ed Correspondence 2/24/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team
Hi Ed, Report for 2/27/2006 – 3/3/2006 – LCCC – Albany County Campus Prepared by Seth A. Carson Correspondence 2/27/2006 – Email from Stu Reeve to Team Eileen, Phil, and Tim, Thanks to all of you for the wonderful day and lunch last Friday. You made my week for sure. You are doing remarkable things in Laramie. The new school is beautiful, innovative, and a true show case. I'm sure Nicole is going to be busy with many many tours. Great job to everyone! Keep me posted on when the wind turbine and PV systems are coming, I really want to see those systems come on-line. Your community is very fortunate to have such a tremendous facility and access to your "state of the art" learning opportunities.
Tim, you and John are such a great team. I'm so impressed with your skills and attention to detail. Your students are learning from the best of the best. They may not know it now, but they are receiving an education that will reap amazing rewards for them for years to come. Thanks for taking the time on your day off to let me learn from you and see your latest project. I'm so impressed with how you and John continue to bring new ideas into reality. Keep up the outstanding work and please pass on a big hello and congratulations to John too. Thanks again. Stu Correspondence 2/27/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Seth Carson Hi Seth, These two gentlemen were here last week for a tour. They work with the Department of Transportation in Cheyenne. They are trying to do research so they can build energy efficient restrooms, office buildings... Do you have what we think will be the final construction costs, and the Bob Berry's fees (they thought Bob Berry as a commissioning agent would be wonderful to have on a project)? Thanks for any help you can give. Phil Correspondence 2/27/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Nicole, I have revised Warranty Report #6 to include the below comments under Problem #1, date of Feb 27th. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 2/28/2006 – Email from Jerry Harris to Team Nicole, Please review the attached LCCC RFI #004. Thanks Jerry L. Harris Correspondence 3/3/2006 – Email from Phil Neal to Team Hi all, Nicole at TK left me a message. The water leaking problem (around the base of the toilet) in the east pod staff bathroom was not all in our head. The plumbers pulled the toilet and found that it was cracked, and that the caulking around the base was the only thing keeping the water from overflowing into the room and hall (yuck). They had to order a new toilet and it should be in next week. Until then, the restroom is out of order. Phil |
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Seth Carson
Architectural Engineer, E.I.T., Owner.
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