VA FEDERAL
OFFICE BUILDING

LOCATION
Newark, NJ

AREA
120,000 SF

COMPLETION
2011

CLIENT
General Services Administration
VA Federal Office Building

SUSTAINABLE FEATURES
Energy Conservation Measures
Solar Hot Water System
Solar Panel Installation

The General Services Administrations (GSA) objective for this project was to explore possible Energy Conservation Measures (ECM) for this historic building, and implement them to reduce the operating expenses, maintenance and operation cost. The systems investigated include the elevators, basement lighting, boiler and chiller operations and hot water heating. Heritage Architecture responded to a fast track schedule requested by the GSA to prepare a Level II energy audit report, prepare the ECM summary and cost analysis, measure energy reduction and detail each ECM. We prepared utility bills analysis, to determine annual energy usage, and used this baseline to measure energy reduction for each system proposed. During construction documents phase, we transformed the ECMs into design and detail documents and prepared the project for bidding including detailed construction cost estimates. The building had potential for installation of Solar Hot Water system, due to the orientation, and good solar exposure.  The Solar Hot Water system design was based on energy software analysis, simulation & shading diagrams to optimize the energy captured for heating.  We prepared these shading diagrams to identify potential locations, prepared the system simulation, and designed the panel installation based on the analysis.