San Diego Unified School District

San Diego Unified School District  is currently implementing a $4.9 billion bond program funded by San Diego Unified School District's Propositions S and Z. Prop. S is a $2.1 billion bond measure that was approved by 68.71 percent of San Diego voters in 2008. Prop. Z is a $2.8 billion bond measure approved by 61.8 percent of the voters in 2012. In an effort to provide a quality school in every neighborhood, the district is using Prop. S and Prop. Z funds to repair, renovate and revitalize district schools. 

Alpers Engineering was brought in to perform commissioning with the district commissioning team when these projects lead to major changes in the lighting, HVAC, or controls systems. Over the last year, Alpers Engineering has become involved in Whole Site Modernizations and New Construction projects on over 40 different schools for SDUSD. To comply with Title 24 Part 6 and ensure every school we are involved in is a success we have performed the full suite of commissioning processes. This includes Design Reviews,  Title 24 Compliance Form Reviews, Submittal Reviews, Commissioning Plans with both Pre-Functional and Functional Testing Procedures, regular Commissioning Meetings, Functional Testing, Issues Tracking, District personnel Training Verification, and Final Commissioning Reports.

Southwestern College

Building Automation System Upgrade

The Southwestern Community College District had multiple building automation systems across 4 campuses. These systems were legacy control products from multiple vendors.  The College is currently in the middle of a major campus new building construction and expansion, adding multiple buildings with new state of the art control systems.

The BAS Upgrade project was developed to prepare the existing systems to integrate the new systems and consolidate the entire District BAS into one central system with one software platform.

Alpers Engineering documented and reviewed the current system BAS system operation. The scope included a new graphical user interface for all the existing control systems on the campuses. Alpers Engineering assisted the District by managing the commissioning of the new system installation, startup, and controls contractor pre-functional and functional testing. The primary goal of commissioning was to ensure that the system was accurate, user friendly, modern, and was something that the facilities staff could trust. The staff now uses the building automation system to solve maintenance and comfort issues quickly, and to investigate future energy savings projects.

Live Oak Elementary School

Fallbrook Union Elementary School District

The aging equipment on campus at Live Oak Elementary School led to higher than desired energy and maintenance bills. This made Live Oak a perfect candidate for the newly implemented Proposition 39.

Alpers Engineering was brought in to perform Retro-Commissioning to find all the issues affecting the system, determine which equipment needed to be replaced, and which equipment merely needed to be repaired.

To accomplish this, Alpers Engineering maintained a close relationship with the maintenance staff, conducting interviews and site walk-throughs to deduce which pieces of equipment were in need of replacement, which units needed to be repaired, and which units could be left as is. This was used to create a specific list of the proposed new equipment.

Next, in depth calculations were done based on this information that estimated the cost of running the current system, the cost of running the proposed new system, the cost of implementation, and the savings that would come as a result. The results of these calculations showed the project would pay for itself, and far exceeded the basic requirements of the CEC, and the project was thusly approved. Using California funds, Live Oak is now implementing the proposed changes and will soon see improvements in comfort and reduced energy bills.

SPAWAR Old Town Building 4

SPAWAR OT4 was queued up to receive new controls as part of a large scale controls upgrade done by the navy. The legacy controls on site were those installed when the building was first constructed in 1996.

Alpers Engineering was brought in to Commission the newly implemented controls and various repairs and replacements that were being done at the same time. This meant verifying proper installation, testing functionality, confirming drawings and sequences were updated, and making sure proper training was performed to ensure a smooth and seamless turnover. 

Perris High School #4

Perris Union High School District

Perris High school #4 is a Title 24 new building commissioning project currently under construction. The school is slated to house 2,600 students with 94 teaching stations, and cover approximately 285,000 square feet. Alpers Engineering was assigned commissioning for the project, and has so far completed a design review, conducted numerous commissioning meetings, and developed a commissioning plan. 

As the project progresses, Alpers Engineering will complete Pre- functional testing, Functional testing, submittal reviews, O&M reviews, training verification, and provide an 8 to 10 month warranty walk through.  All while working with the members of the commissioning team to satisfy all the owners project requirements and get the project completed on time.