Project Profile
San Diego Unified School District
AEG has provided commissioning services for over 100 projects for the San Diego Unified School District. The following projects represent a small sampling of the extensive Commissioning activities Alpers Engineering has completed for San Diego Unified over the last 7 years:
La Jolla High School
O'Farrell Charter Middle School
Innovations Academy Charter School
Locations: San Diego, CA
Market: Education K-12
Services: Full-Service Commissioning Services including Design, Construction, and Occupancy Phase Commissioning
Status: Ongoing
La Jolla High School
San Diego Unified School District
Location: San Diego, CA
Market: Education
Project Size: 158,000 Sq Ft
Services: Full-Service Commissioning Services including Design, Construction, and Occupancy Phase Commissioning
Status: Complete
Project Description: Alpers Engineering Group provided whole-site modernization commissioning services for the 158,000-square-foot High School Campus in San Diego, California. Cx activities included the renovation of9 existing buildings, including administration, theater, science lab, classroom buildings, food services, and library. The project was designed using CHPS guidelines.
Scope of Work Performed: Nicholas Alpers’ role as project manager and Commissioning Agent was to provide the CHPS Construction Commissioning. Alpers Engineering Group was in charge of the full CHPS advanced commissioning. The design engineer failed to prioritize the design issues log and allowed the project to be bid without the needed corrections. Unfortunately, fifty percent of the 113 mechanical system design issues were never corrected and became construction issues.
These issues created unnecessary RFI’s or change orders during construction. The construction issues combined with the design issues identified reached 436 construction issues. They included deficiencies in installation, control functionality, lighting control, and equipment performance.
The renovation of the existing equipment required a comprehensive 100% commissioning effort to verify the systems were working correctly at turnover. All issues were resolved.
O'Farrell Charter Middle School
San Diego Unified School District
Location: San Diego, CA
Market: Education
Project Size: 70,000 Sq Ft
Services: Whole Site Modernization Commissioning & CHPS Commissioning
Status: Completed
Project Description: Alpers provided CHPS Commissioning for the Whole Site Modernization, 70,000 sq. ft., interior project renovation. New HVAC System Commissioning for 48 Rooftop Units, Lighting Controls, 2 New Boilers and Pumps, 4 Heat Pumps, and 8 Exhaust Fans.
Scope of Work Performed: The District hired Alpers Engineering Group to take over commissioning from a previous Cx Agent; the District terminated their contract. The project did not have commissioning specified, so Alpers got creative and required the contractor to demonstrate performance based on the specification’s wording regarding general testing. Alpers found many issues including:
The mechanical contractor installed the HVAC without the specified economizer dampers.
RTU’s were mislabeled in the EMS. The controls contractor had to reprogram graphics and renumber.
Condensing Boilers were provided when Non‐Condensing was specified. The contractor added bypass valves and controls to prevent flue gas condensation with HW was reset.
The piping did not meet the specifications. Many areas were repiped.
The Package Carrier AC unit for the theater did not integrate fully with Campus EMS. Carrier provided BACnet.
The start/stop schedule was not set up. Units were running continuously 24/7 for months. The contractor returned to the site to schedule equipment and add override capability to the thermostats as specified.
Innovations Academy Charter School
San Diego Unified School District
Location: San Diego, CA
Market: Education K-12
Project Size: 87,000 Sq Ft
Services: Whole Site Modernization Commissioning & CHPS Commissioning
Status: Completed
Alpers Engineering Group provided whole-site modernization commissioning for the 87,000-square-foot Charter School in San Diego, California. This project was designed using CHPS guidelines. The Innovates Academy Charter School project relocated its facilities to a new location with full tenant improvement work and the creation of new classrooms, administration offices, multipurpose rooms, and gym areas.