SPARK

Discoveries, innovations, and insights that illuminate the future of the built environment

Update: HVAC Best Practices to Reduce Coronavirus Spread

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Adam Gloss revisits his post from March 31 with current information on best practices for reducing the spread of coronavirus via HVAC systems.  

With developments around the coronavirus moving quickly, there is a lot of conflicting information about whether the virus is being found in the air (becoming aerosolized). According to the latest information from the World Health Organization, while this is possible in some rare circumstances, the primary means of transmission remains through droplet and contact transmission, not airborne transmission.

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Separating fact from hype: Best practices to reduce coronavirus spread through HVAC systems

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Adam Gloss, Director and GM of Service | Air conditioning system on roof top

There will always be people who will take advantage of a crisis to sell something. Of late, we’re seeing some contractors, distributors and manufacturers touting ionization products (ozone generators, cold plasma, etc), HEPA filters, coil cleaning and UV systems as ways to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Our customers are asking us about many of these products as a result. So, what really works and what can you do to leverage your HVAC systems to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19)?

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Mission: Possible—Lighting solutions, changing more than just bulbs

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At McKinstry, our mission is to make every building we touch more efficient. “Mission: Possible” is a new monthly series featuring people and projects around the country that demonstrate our mission in action.

From the moment you wake up to the moment your head hits the pillow, there’s a constant in almost everyone’s life—light. Whether it’s natural or artificial, in your home or your office, incandescent or LED, light is always in our lives.

In recent years, much of the conversation around energy efficiency and lighting had centered on switching from fluorescent or incandescent bulbs to LED lighting. Understandably so, considering that LED lighting is more efficient, versatile, and lasts longer.

Efficiency in lighting is about more than just changing bulbs, however. This is exactly where McKinstry’s Lighting Solutions team comes in.

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Mission: Possible—The energy-saving potential of CHP systems

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At McKinstry, our mission is to make every building we touch more efficient. “Mission: Possible” is a new monthly series featuring projects around the country that demonstrate our mission in action. 

Since 2013, our Seattle energy team has worked with MultiCare (an integrated healthcare network made up of eight hospitals and numerous clinics across Washington) to deliver more than 30 projects and make every MultiCare building we touch more efficient. 

At Good Samaritan Hospital (located in Puyallup, Wash.), MultiCare and McKinstry recently implemented a combined heat and power (CHP) system. This innovative system allows the hospital to generate its own power on-site, which is drastically more reliable, cost efficient and energy efficient. 

At Good Samaritan, the new two-megawatt CHP system came online in late 2019 and was fully implemented in early 2020. The system will cut combined energy and maintenance costs by 25 percent, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent, as compared to just connecting to the standard power grid. 

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Revitalizing Kilgore College to extend its impact and legacy

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Students returning to Kilgore College campus in the Fall of 2019. Photo courtesy of Kilgore College.

By Ryan Sheard, McKinstry Account Executive

Kilgore College is a Texas institution known across North America for excellence in academics, athletics and community service. It’s also home to a leading fire academy and the world-famous Rangerettes precision drill team that has entertained international audiences since 1940.

To prepare for its 85th anniversary in 2020, Kilgore College envisioned a comprehensive energy revitalization project to extend its impact and legacy. McKinstry worked hand-in-hand with Kilgore leadership to create learning environments as high performing as the Kilgore students themselves.

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How energy efficiency is powering the new University of Utah Health Science Campus

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By Erick Allen and DJ Hubler

The University of Utah (U of U) Health Science Campus houses nearly 4 million square feet of critical patient care, laboratory and educational space. In 2017, the U of U broke ground on several new cutting-edge buildings—totaling nearly 800,000 square feet—transforming the campus. The university realized that their existing chilled water plant didn’t have the capacity to meet the loads of these new buildings scheduled to come online.

The U of U Planning, Design and Construction (PDC) team studied how best to meet this new cooling load—either by adding new chillers at a cost of nearly $40 million, or by significantly decreasing the cooling load in existing buildings. Reducing the load in the existing buildings could be accomplished for less than $25 million and would also result in ongoing energy savings. The choice was clear, and the university set out to find a partner to help them design, build and execute these energy-saving measures.

The PDC team chose McKinstry as its partner, with a dual goal of reducing the load on the chilled water plant by at least 2,000 tons and saving enough energy in the process to pay back the capital used to fund the project within 10 years.

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A smart, comprehensive approach to a clean energy future

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Jeff Hughes (left) is McKinstry’s Director of Renewable Energy Services.

The clean energy revolution is here, RIGHT NOW! Right-sized, clean, and resilient power generation is the exciting new norm and the future we are building together. Renewable energy has seen tremendous growth in recent years, and widespread adoption has been enjoyed throughout the country in all major market sectors.

This year in the United States alone, 24 gigawatts (GW) of new electricity generation capacity will come online, 66 percent of which will be provided by solar PV, wind, other renewables, or battery energy storage. Eight GW of capacity will be retired, the majority of which is from fossil fuel sources. While this represents significant progress, renewable energy (including hydropower) accounts for just under 20 percent of the overall U.S. energy mix, underscoring the tremendous challenge in front of us—to achieve a 100-percent, clean energy future.

This data shows we’re chasing a moving target—a growing target that still adds eight GW of fossil fuel capacity every year. For us to achieve the future we desire, we must think holistically and with resolute purpose. By adding solar and renewable energy to our electricity grid, we are all helping bring clean energy to our communities but only addressing part of the problem: we are ignoring our energy use and we are ignoring our behavior toward energy.

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We’re ‘walking in’ for climate change

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By Dean Allen, CEO, McKinstry

Today, millions of students, tech workers and others across the globe will be walking out of their classrooms, places of work and homes to join together in a Global Climate Strike to demand action against the looming climate crisis. We at McKinstry applaud these efforts, and I’m personally inspired by the youth leading this movement and hopeful for their future.

Today, as we do every day at McKinstry, we’ll be spending our time innovating the waste out of the built environment; designing projects with aggressive energy and carbon reduction goals leveraging renewables, shared energy, and other leading-edge technologies; and constructing, renovating and servicing building systems in ways that create less impact to the earth’s fragile ecosystems. This work is critical to the fight against climate change.

We are part of an industry that greatly contributes to the climate crisis despite having the power to do something about it. But, because of persistent silos, slow innovation and poor organization, the construction industry has so far been ineffective at embracing what’s possible in the fight for our planet. The time to act is now, which is why McKinstry is working hard to change the paradigm and lead the way to a carbon-free future.

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World-class research facilities demand world-class facility optimization

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By Ric Cochrane, account executive, and Mike Kowalick, senior program manager

The University of Washington School of Medicine’s world-class biomedical research complex includes three buildings with lab space plus an administrative and mixed-use building, totaling nearly 530,000 square feet. As with many sophisticated new facilities, ensuring that the building meets its functional design goals required building operators to understand its unique features and have a well-defined procedural framework for monitoring and maintaining its systems.

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2020 Interns: Here’s what to expect at McKinstry

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Editor’s Note: We asked 2019 intern Jason Orr to reflect on his summer at McKinstry, respond to a few questions, and share his tips, best practices and suggestions for future interns.

Q: What are the keys to a successful internship at McKinstry?

A: Everyone has a unique experience here. The work from position to position varies greatly, and the departments themselves work on very different projects. However, across all positions there are a few key actions that can help future interns be successful.

Jason Orr.

The first is to get to know your immediate team. These are the people you’ll be spending the most time with, meaning you can learn the most from their expertise. Work hard with your team, but also get to know people on a personal level.

Secondly, you should go to as many events as you can fit into your schedule. The B.L.U.E. Program team does a fantastic job scheduling events and giving interns opportunities to learn about relevant topics. At these events, you should get to know a variety of people—everyone has a unique story to tell.

Lastly, future interns should connect with people at McKinstry who have the same hobbies/interests if you want to make a deeper connection outside of the office. I ended up rock climbing this summer with two awesome fellow employees at Little Si (a mountain outside of Seattle). It was an amazing experience!

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