GSA Sidney Yates Building Chiller Demonstration & Control System, Washington, DC

“Size:
208,000 SF

Highlights:
MEP/FP Design
controls
Historic Building
”

Originally constructed to house the Bureau of Engraving & Printing, the Sidney R. Yates Building has served as home to many different federal agencies over the past hundred years. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, the building was modernized in the 1980s and in 1990 became the permanent home of the U.S. Forest Service. In 1999 the building was named in honor of Congressman Sidney R. Yates.

SETTY services include MEP engineering design, controls integration, and commissioning towards an innovative 12-month comparison study of competing chiller technologies. This effort was part of GSA's Green Proving Ground (GPG) program, the purpose of which is to evaluate emerging building technologies in real-world settings and provide recommendations for their deployment across GSA's nationwide real estate portfolio.

The competing chiller technologies evaluated in this study were a new variable-speed screw chiller compressor and a magnetic levitation chiller compressor, an already proven technology that was the subject of a prior (2013) GPG study.

The two chiller units were installed side by side at the Yates building and connected to the same chilled water and condenser water loops.

Our design efficiency was based in part on our staff’s familiarity with this historic structure, having performed projects of elevator replacement/modernization and plumbing system upgrades in previous task orders for the Yates building and other similar historic government facilities.