Church Air Handlers

The air handlers that serve the church sanctuary are located in rooms above and to the left and right of the altar. These are very confined spaces with limited access. Over the years the air handler performance has deteriorated due to the build up of un-removable dirt, corroded/thickening pipes, decreased motor speeds and control systems that no longer functioned. Every effort was made over two years to try and restore full function to the machines or to operate them in a different manner to counteract the loss of capacity. At a certain point this effort became cost prohibitive and capacity was still inadequate to serve the needs of the church. When all was said and done, overall system capacity was less than 85% of the original capacity.

But it just wasn't just the deterioration of the systems that was an issue in the decision to replace the equipment. Systems today have much better reaction time to changes in the internal needs of a building. This will help reduce operating costs due to greater efficiencies. In addition, in the late 90's, the copper roof was added to the church. There is additional heat gain in the church due to the changing of the roof surface from a light color to a dark color. And we also have the changes in our Mass schedules. The phenomenon of large 1, 2:30 and 4 pm Masses is a relatively new development. This of course is the hottest time of the day. When you add the large crowds Mass after Mass, the hotter roof and the deteriorated air handlers, there was nothing we could do to control the rising temperatures in the church.

Planning for the replacement began in the spring of 2008. This is more involved than one might think. For one thing, this equipment is 40 years old and the control system is a mixture of vintage 1960 and additions in the 1990's. So this requires not only new equipment but new controls for that equipment. And let's talk about the equipment. First of all no provision was made when the church was built to change out the air handlers. That means that we had to determine a method for extracting the old equipment but more importantly, a means for getting the new equipment put back in. Once we determined a path we had to find a company that was qualified and economical enough to perform those operations. After finding the path and the company to do that work, we had to find an equipment manufacturer that could produce machines that could be broken down into manageable installable pieces at a reasonable cost. The pictures of the truck unloading show the two 18 wheel trucks being unloaded of their 24 separate machine segments. And even some of these pieces will have to be dismantled before they can be lifted into the very small space that we have to operate in. In the end, this effort required 3 separate contractors to get the job done. Moses Mechanical is the contractor demolishing the old and installing the new equipment. Texas Air Systems procured the McQuay air handlers and Atlantis Services will be installing the controls.

Units were delivered on January 9th and the demolition began on January 12th. This time of the year was selected because 1/2 of our system will be down for about 3 weeks time and it is better to have a heating system down than a cooling system. And weather (storms) is not normally an issue at this time of year.

At this point we would like to thank parishioners Tom Schlacter and Guy Chamberlain for their assistance to John Farrell in making this project happen. Both Tom and Guy are the tops in their fields and helped John navigate the shoals.

Two trucks delivered the 24 pieces of the units from Minnesota.	A forklift was rented for the unloading occasion. We discovered that getting a forklift out of a dirt ditch is quite the difficult adventure.
There isn't much room to work.	Part of one old handler is removed, the second one is behind it still mostly in place except a coil is missing.
Everything has to go up and down in this opening.	The room is empty. Looks like this picture is upside down but it is not. Those are ducts at the top and water piping.
Headed for the scrap yard.	Some of the units have to be broken down into smaller pieces. This is an example. The coil had to be removed from the part of the air handler in which it was installed because it was too wide. This way it can go in and then put back into the housing.
Ouch! I just hate when this happens! This section of brick had to be removed because the units would not fit. Yes they will be replaced or hidden with a nice area rug.	There are two garages full of the sections of the new handlers. All this stuff and more that you can't see has to go into two small rooms!
First piece of equipment lifted into the mechanical room.

Well here we are on Thursday and progress has really ground to a halt. Through no fault of the installers we are wrestling with space issues. Our first challenge in the morning was that the path for the return air ducts simply would not work. As a result, we had to do some on-site redesign. Instead of ducting return air, we are converting the mechanical room to a return air plenum and we will duct the exhaust air out of the room. Problem solved. Maybe we should have taken a couple of more months to plan this thing. But then we found that the cutoff valves that we installed yesterday will have to be removed and re-oriented in order for us to pick up two additional inches of space. Yes, our restrictions are so severe that two inches matter a great deal. (Add your own jokes here.) We have also decided to change out some hot water pipes because once this equipment is in place there would be no way to service them. Might as well replace them now and they will be good for another 50 years. So while we have loaded almost all the equipment in this room, we are behind. Hopefully we can catch up Friday.

In the background is one new air handler, in the foreground 1/2 of the second. The gold motors are the drives that bring in return air and provide supply air.

Basically the same picture as the one on the left but the guy on the left in the above picture wanted to be in a picture on our website. We like these guys and want to keep them happy!

As of Saturday morning we have the new units on the south side running. They are not under control of the energy management system but they are running.

We made it through the weekend and thank the heavens that the weather cooperated. We should have the new air handlers on the south side of the church fully operational for the Masses on the 25th. We anticipate that the full system should be operational for the Masses on the weekend including February 1st.

Completion of the chill water system on the south side and the beginning of demolition of the north side handlers are scheduled for the 19th. This is what the south mechanical room looks like as of the 19th.

The back side of the number 2 air unit.

The front side of the number 2 air unit.

The controls people will be installing their system beginning on the 20th. The controls are essentially your thermostat at home but hyped up and a lot more expensive. We monitor and control temperature, outside air, CO2 levels and watch for fires with the controls.

No new pictures, nothing really to show. But there is a report. When you put lipstick on a pig it is still a pig. So no lipstick, we are behind on the project. Right now we have full installation of the south air handlers but probably will not have control over them or full operating efficiency until the week of January 26. Whereas we anticipated having the north air handlers installed by this weekend, we currently do not expect that to happen. Rather than being a two week project this will be a three week project. However we are determined to do this right so a week in the lifespan of this equipment is not a significant issue. The units on the south side are so nice, beautiful in fact. They are smooth, they are quiet and we actually have room to move around in the mechanical room. They are things of beauty and we should seek out beauty wherever we can find it.

Taking out the last of the pipes in the north equipment room.

Ditto.

Since it is unlikely that you will ever get up there, this is what the 'attic' above the pews looks like. Storm water drain pipe on the upper left, electrical conduit in the upper middle and air ducts on the upper right of the picture. Also pictured is the clever mechanism that we devised to raise and lower the hymnal sign boards that Ron Rhodes built for us. Those clever mechanisms are called garage door openers! Deacon David Leerson and John F. Farrell came up with the idea for the garage door openers.

The north side air handler room is cleared of the old equipment. Tuesday the 27th work will begin to load the new equipment in that room.

Monday everyone including the webmaster took a day off. How nice. Can you say slackers all the way around? Not really, the installation crew had to line out a job on Monday so that was planned. The webmaster, well he is a slacker, he just didn't feel like going to work Monday. By the way, the webmaster and self-fashioned film critic recommends the movie Gran Torino.

Tuesday all are back to business. Progress has been very steady. There is more room in the north mechanical room and we have the experience of already getting two handlers up there so things are moving quickly.

Here is the anatomy of muscling the units into the room.

Step one, the equipment will all go up through a hole above these doors.	Here is a piece being lifted up through the hole.
This piece is almost up to floor level in the mechanical room.	This piece is at floor level and a furniture trolley is positioned to accept the unit.
Then the piece is pulled out of the hole with brut strength. Two men pulling, one pushing. And one lazy guy just snapping a picture. Really? Couldn't he have helped?	Now what could be easier, positioning instructions right there on the side. But let's remember, these are men, we don't need no stinking instructions. That's right, a Treasure of the Sierra Madre movie.
This unit had to be dismantled to get it up and is being reassembled. The coil is very wide and heavy.	The garage is emptying! Hooray, it is cold and we want to park in the garage again. Wah, wah, wah.
Just in case it is needed, this is one of the fine adjustment tools used on the jobsite.

Wednesday brought ice and cold weather but we all soldiered on. The electrician will be hooking up the motors in the north air handling room. We are insulating the pipes in the south side. The controls guys are finishing up the wiring in the south room.

This is a picture of the north air room with the machines inside. Suddenly all the space is taken up.

No reason to show this other than it is a cool tool. This thing is great at moving large pieces of equipment. Just a couple of wheels and a long metal bar for leverage. Now if there were something like this to move employees toward work.....

There hasn't been much to show in the way of pictures. We can tell you this. The brick corner that we destroyed has been fixed. The programmer is working to get control of the south side air handlers. The piping of the north side continues. The controls are in but without the piping there is nothing to do. Everyone wants this project to be over. Some projects are smooth as silk, this isn't one of them.

Oh look, the corner is fixed, no need for that rug aunt Mildred.	What a mess. Tools everywhere, pipe everywhere. Where is the maid.
The electronic controls are installed. These two green devices control sensors, actuators, dampers, valves and all manner of things in order to control the temperature of the church.	And we are still piping on the north side.

Piping on the north side is complete. However we have now decided to re-pipe the hot water lines on the south side to eliminate some constrictions on the air supply ducts. We are so displeased with our progress that we are now intentionally extending the misery. Aren't we clever. The units will be back under control for the weekend of the 7th but there won't be a connection for the supply air ducts on the north side. The work that we have left is to duct in outside air, seal off the mechanical rooms to make the return air ducts work properly and re-piping and re-ducting the south room.

Friday
Here is a rundown of what remains to be done. Saturday the 7th we are insulating pipes. Monday the 9th we are completing the installation of controls in the north room and cleaning up loose ends. Hopefully by Friday the 13th we will be installing duct work to bring outside air into the church properly. Then the week of the 16th we will replace or add walls to seal the room so that everything will work properly. Everyone took the day off on Friday which was just fine by the webmaster as he was otherwise occupied.

Saturday
Most of the pipes were insulated. If we can prod the webmaster to make one more lousy trip up into the mechanical rooms then perhaps we can get some pictures. Don't hold your breath but who knows.

Wednesday
Okay boys and girls, Tuesday we completed the re-doing of the hot water piping and insulated the pipes. The controls were not addressed either Monday or Tuesday but should be worked on today. There won't be any updates to this site until Monday as that lazy webmaster has chosen to go on a road trip later this evening.

February 16th
Back by popular acclaim, the webmaster has the following to report. Insulation is almost completed on the new piping. The remainder of the insulation should be completed tonight. The hot water lines were re-routed and everything is up to speed. Minor difficulties with the chill water system seem to be ironed out. We also regained control of the south air handlers. This is nice. A full test will be conducted on these units in the afternoon.

Ductwork began today. The north air handler will be ducted first followed by the south. This work should be completed by Friday. We should have complete control of and functionality of the system by Friday. But of course we are doubtful of this but ever the optimists!

The carpenter is here to put in a couple of walls and doors. This will create the return air plenum after we destroyed the old system. Here are a few pictures.

This is the insulation. Only the elbows in the north room remain to be completed. Isn't this pretty?

This is where the supply ducts will connect to the church. Later we will show this same angle so you can see just how tight the area is. Aren't you tingling with anticipation?

This is a view of the workers installing the outside air ducts. They run from...the outside duh to the top of the units. These are giving them fits. And this is the north side, the easy side. Corey appreciated the webmasters reminder of that fact....not.

This is the vent that brings in the outside air.

Due to the limited amount of space, we changed how we are bringing the return air back from the church. Previously the air was in a duct all the way back to the air handlers. Due to space limitations, now we have closed off the access to the air handling rooms and sealed them up. This makes the entire air handler room part of the return air system. We access those rooms through the doors that we installed. The pictures below show those new walls.

This view is from the ground floor looking up. The door previously was an opening.

This is a picture from inside the air handler room. The return air ducts leading to the church are above and to the left of the door from this angle. They have been cut off even with the wall and we are foaming every crack to seal the room as tight as possible. The metal on the lower half of this picture is just detritus and will be removed later.

Monday more sheet metal ducts were installed. We also closed off the north outside air chamber. We hope to be substantially finished Tuesday, control guys back out Wednesday.

This many trucks and you know the tab is going to be high.

More sheet metal is going up. Really, is there any more room?

The outside air chamber wall is now complete on both sides. This is the north side.

These are the north supply ducts that we promised we would show you. Aren't you just thrilled.

These are the relief air dampers that we installed once we converted the mechanical room to a plenum.

Well what do you know, we have completed our little project. Our thanks to Jason Moses with Moses Mechanical, Jerry Braun with Texas Air Systems, Guy Chamberlain, Jerry Zimmerman with Zimmerman Carpentry, Steve Hellman with American Heating and Cooling and Richard Bryant/Richard Johnston with Atlantis Services. There are numerous folks that worked with these guys to make this a success and we thank them as well. Just remember, the good things are worth fighting for and this is one of the good things. Success is a wonderful thing. Enjoy the conditioned air.