Author
With the recent push to revitalize Jacksonville’s urban core, the JEA Headquarters Building will be an essential addition to Downtown Jacksonville. JEA is a municipal utility providing electric, water and wastewater services to parts of northeast Florida. The project is being developed by Ryan Companies US, Inc. on JEA’s behalf. Health, wellness, and resiliency are at the heart of the new 153,000 sf, seven-story headquarters. The headquarters building will be constructed on the site just south of the Old Federal Courthouse building now called the States Attorney’s office in downtown Jacksonville.
Three (3) dedicated outside air system (a.k.a., DOAS) are located in the penthouse of the building. The dedicated outside air units ventilation air is ducted sensible cooling terminal units located on Floors 3 through 9. One central station, Variable volume, air handling unit on each of the first and second level will services the HVAC needs of those floors.
COVID-19 Prevention
TLC designed the HVAC systems using several best practice strategies to help reduce the transmission of microbials, such as COVID-19. Strategies include:
Dedicated Outdoor Air Systems (DOAS) minimize the amount of return air, thus also minimizing cross-contamination potential. The DOAS units are dessicant dehumidification units equipped with MERV 8 prefilters and MERV 13 final filters. However the units are designed to handle the pressure drop of MERV 14 filter for enhanced filtration during epidemic in place conditions. The units provide enhanced dehumidification down to a 51 degree dewpoint. The outside air is supplied to sensible cooling terminal units. The sensible cooling terminal units are fan powered with ECM motor driven fans and are equipped with local filtration.
The first and second floors are served by traditional air handling units. The air handling units are designed for MERV 14 filtration but can be reduced to MERV 13 filters during post epidemic in placed condition. The air handling units are also equipped with UV lights. The UV lights are on the downstream section of the cooling coils. The lights are designed with enough intensity for both surface disinfection and air stream disinfection to a 90% kill rate.
Because of the needs for local exhaust, the outdoor air ventilation rates are higher than required for ASHRAE 62.1. The design of the systems allow for the relative humidity rates to be tightly controlled. This ensures that the building relative humidity will stay below 55% RH and will be controlled within the optimum 40%-60%RH guideline provided by ASHRAE.
WELL Building Certification
Beyond energy and water efficiency and minimizing the new building’s overall impact on the environment, JEA’s new HQ is also focusing on healthy building strategies and has committed to WELL Building Certification. And the following strategies to maximize occupant well-being.
- Air quality and water quality are key aspects WELL building, with quarterly and annual testing requirements.
- Circadian light design, lighting quality, access to exterior views
- thermal comfort
- and acoustics are seamlessly integrated into the design
- focus on movement and ergonomics
When completed, the new JEA Headquarters complex will be THE most sustainable building in North Florida
Mark Gelfo, PE, LEED Fellow, Project Manager and Sustainability Consultant with TLC Engineering Solutions