Architect: Dennis J. Lyon, Architects

Square Feet: 15,700 Square Feet

Construction Budget: $1,250,000.00

The Nebraska Center for Excellence in Electronics is a facility designed for the testing of all electrical and electronic equipment to meet manufacturing and compliance requirements.  The facility will provide testing for electronics hardware and industry certification, applying research of new production technology and training for industry professionals.

Research for the design of the building included reviewing installations at several local electronic manufacturing companies and the UL Testing lab in Chicago.  The final design was a coordinated effort of representatives from the electronics manufacturers and architectural/engineering design team.

The mechanical systems have commercial horizontal fan coil units with high efficient filters and humidifiers for each zone throughout the facility.  Cooling is provided by unitary air conditioners with DX coils for each of the fan coil units.  The mechanical equipment was located on a mechanical mezzanine to allow service and maintenance of the equipment without disruptions to the testing equipment.

The testing area had an overhead grid system to provide power, lighting, communications and data wiring to the test equipment below.

A major feature of the testing area is a 10 meter anechoic chamber for EMI testing of electronic and electric equipment.

A 50 Hz. Generator and power distribution was designed for testing of electronic equipment for international manufacturers.

Other electrical systems include transient voltage surge suppression, reference grounding grid, data and communications wireways, electronic access controls, lightning protection system, and energy efficient lighting.  The electrical systems were designed to provide flexibility for adding and changing testing equipment in the future as technologies change.

Geary Engineering, Inc. provided the mechanical and electrical engineering services for the renovations to an existing facility to convert a psychiatric hospital into a seminary for St. Gregory the Great Seminary in Seward, Nebraska.  After the renovations were completed, Geary Engineering, Inc.  provided the engineering services for the Chapel, Library and Classroom additions.  The existing facility was approximately 35,000 square feet.  The Library and Classroom addition consisted of approximately 12,800 square feet for the library, support areas, classrooms, restrooms and mechanical room.  The Chapel addition involved remodeling 6,800 square feet and an addition of 4,200 square feet for administrative offices, and a new chapel of approximately 8,800 square feet.  The budget cost of the entire project was $6,500,000.00.

The existing building had roof top units.  These roof top units were left in place to serve the existing facility.  For the Chapel, Library and Classroom, new HVAC systems were provided.  The Chapel is served by a constant volume air handling system.  The system is design to run at two different speeds.  The low speed is for low occupancies when very few people are in the Chapel.   The high speed is for the occasions when a large number of people are in the Chapel.  The heating and cooling systems for the Chapel were designed to operate at less than an NC rating of 20.

The Library and Classrooms are served with a variable air volume system with VAV boxes and reheat coils.  New boilers provide heating for the Chapel, Library and Classrooms.  Each of the air handling units have air-cooled condensers to provide air conditioning.

Custom designed lighting fixtures were designed for the Chapel.  A low voltage control system controls the lighting throughout the Chapel and provides an unlimited number of lighting schemes.  The control system also allows four different preset scenes.

The existing electrical service was increased to handle the entire facility.  The existing main switchboard was reused and expanded for the new expanded facility.

Geary Engineering, Inc. provided the mechanical and electrical engineering for the indoor air quality improvements for St. Joseph Catholic Church.  The project began as an evaluation of the existing HVAC systems.  Evaluations of the existing systems resulted in recommendations to replace the old two- pipe heating and chilled water system with a geothermal heat pump system.  Energy calculations indicated a payback period of about 12 years based on the energy savings of the geothermal system.  The recommendations presented to the Building Committee were accepted and Geary Engineering, Inc. was selected to complete the engineering design for the new HVAC systems.

The existing boilers, chiller, pumps, fan coil units and unit ventilators were removed.  The new HVAC equipment was designed to go into the spaces vacated by the existing equipment.

The geothermal heating and cooling system was designed for the existing classroom areas of the building.  The well field and main piping was sized for future classrooms to be connected to the system.  The well field consists of 90, 200 feet deep geothermal wells.  Horizontal heat pumps were used above the classroom ceiling where possible.  Unit ventilator type heat pumps were used in some locations where ceiling access was not possible.  Vertical heat pumps were used to replace existing air handling units.

New roof top units were designed for the gymnasium to replace the obsolete units.  The new units are designed with a sound isolation roof curb to eliminate the noise in the gymnasium.  Out door air dampers are designed to allow outside air for cooling when conditions allow.

Energy recovery units were designed to exhaust air from the bathrooms and to distribute the air to the individual heat pumps.

The pneumatic control system was deemed obsolete and was replaced with a new DDC control system.  All of the new circulation pumps and heat pumps are connected to the new controls along with all of the mechanical equipment in the existing church.  The maintenance staff will have control over all systems within the school and church from a workstation located at their desk.  The control system also allows for control from a remote Internet site.