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Energy audit and retro‑commissioning study for 1M sq. ft. of critical Weill Cornell Medicine facilities.
Client
Weill Cornell Medicine
Location
New York, NY
Services
Markets
Wendel’s services on this project for Weill Cornell Medicine included an Energy Audit and Retro-commissioning study for Local Law 87 compliance at ~1 million sq. ft. of critical lab, medical office, and dormitory space across 3 buildings, as well as identifying both near-term actionable and long-term decarbonization projects to meet Local Law 97 Greenhouse Gas emissions targets. The Local Law 87 process included a full ASHRAE Level II audit of lighting, HVAC, building envelope, DHW, and specialty equipment systems, and Retro-commissioning of HVAC systems. Furthermore, additional services were performed to identify and develop design-ready heat recovery heat pump projects for fast implementation to achieve a 20-30% GHG savings in two of the three buildings, as well as the development and phasing of solutions for decarbonization, which included geothermal, thermal storage, sewer, and other advanced waste heat recovery as solutions.
Retro-commissioning
Pre-testing and inspection tasks included reviewing current design drawings, balancing reports, etc., staff interviews, and developing Current Facility Requirements (CFR).
Wendel’s RCx team inspected the general condition of the equipment and systems to identify any issues that will adversely affect performance or the equipment’s ability to be maintained or operate correctly. Lastly, functional testing was conducted through four methods:
Each issue that was identified was analyzed to determine cause of the issue and a recommended solution was provided. Each recommendation included a brief description of the existing and proposed conditions, and an analysis of the estimated energy savings, O&M savings, estimate implementation costs and simple paybacks. Once issues were corrected, Wendel verified their implementation and proper operation of the system/equipment.
Additional Solutions
Wendel developed additional solutions that would reduce loads at the building level, as well as address all systems connected to the district steam loop. This included typical Energy Efficiency Measures (EEMs) such as HVAC controls measures, Energy Recovery Ventilation and Building Envelope.
Improvements, as well as decarbonization measures such as targeted heat recovery heat pumps and steam absorption-to-electric chiller conversions, as well as a geothermal heat pump solution to provide space heating.