Saving the Day at USC KKG House
Brief History of Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG) WorldwideFounded by six students at Monmouth College, Monmouth, Ill., in 1870, KKG is one of the oldest women’s fraternities. There was a 2006 total membership of 200,000 women in 134 collegiate chapters in the U.S. and Canada, and more than 300 alumnae associations worldwide. Famous Kappas include author Julia Ward Howe (“Battle Hymn of the Republic”), “Today Show” anchor Jane Pauley, White House Correspondent Nancy Dickerson and award-winning actress Ashley Judd.
The KKG House at USC
Located three miles south of downtown Los Angeles, the KKG House is situated on the 226-acre University Park Campus, part of the University of Southern California (USC). Built in 1966, this 20,000-square-foot, four-story facility is home to 83 students (37 other Kappas live off campus) and includes 32 dorm rooms, two computer/study rooms, a dining room, kitchen, media room, living room and the house director’s living quarters.
The Flood of 2005
In November 2005, the first floor was completely flooded when the hydronics system for the second and third floor dorm rooms failed. As a result of improper design (not having the right valving and expansion tank in the system), the flood was massive, affecting both the first floor and basement.
Five Cooling and Heating Systems
In April 2006, bids from the executive committee went out to local HVAC contractors to replace the building’s antiquated system with new cooling and heating systems. In addition to the top two dorm room floors (32 rooms were run off a 25-ton chiller and a boiler), there was the first floor dining room, food prep area and kitchen (serviced by a 10-ton gas/ electric packaged unit), a two-ton cooling only heat pump for the media room, and two three-ton fan coils tied to two 2.5-ton heat pumps for the basement and rest of the first floor. The winning bid from Sirius Mechanical Inc., Moreno Valley, Calif., included cleaning up the hydronics system for the second and third floors and repairing the paint and drywall.
A Serious Delay
Sales Manager Randy Scholnick was told that Sirius would get the job on May 20 when the residents left for the summer. USC was to loan the KKG House all the renovation funds, and work was to begin the third week in May. On May 15, the board was told that the loan was on hold and they would have to wait a year. “Fortunately, a local bank stepped in and re-wrote the loan. With funding in place, we executed a formal contract on June 16 and started the project. This delay put an enormous strain on all of us to complete the work before the students were to move in two months later,” Scholnick said.
Mitsubishi Electric Steps in to Save the Day
During summer 2006, fan coils were in high demand. Sirius’ distributor said it couldn’t get its hands on the equipment until August 15 – the very day the Kappas were scheduled to return for the 2006/2007 school year. With a precious month now lost, Scholnick then called Steve Braley, US Airconditioning Distributors, Riverside, Calif., a Mitsubishi Electric distributor. Braley contacted Bobby Hahn, president, Pacific Systems Group, Torrance, Calif., and they held an emergency meeting with the KKG executive committee at the House on July 20 to discuss alternative solutions.
The Ideal Solution—Installation in Less than a Month
The executive committee knew nothing of Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) zoning systems from Mitsubishi Electric Cooling and Heating Solutions, Suwanee, Ga. This system was the ideal solution. Because of Hahn’s clear explanation and their confidence in Sirius Mechanical’s performance to date, the Board felt the switch to Mitsubishi Electric was necessary given the circumstances and tight deadlines. When the go-ahead was finally given, Sirius had only 20 days to complete the entire VRF zoning system installation before the student board moved back into the House, and only 29 days until all 83 residents returned.
VRF Zoning Systems Ideal for 32 Dormitory Rooms
Under the leadership of Owner and President Case Bennett, over the next three weeks, the Sirius crew replaced an aging 25-ton water chiller system and 32 hydronic fan coils with two Mitsubishi Electric nine-ton heat pumps, G-50A Centralized Controller, two Branch Circuit (BC) Controllers and 32 8,000-Btu/h wall-mounted indoor units—all key components of Mitsubishi Electric’s advanced controls network. Thanks to its simplified non-polar wiring configuration, the network was easy for the Sirius crew to install.
The controls network provided individual, personalized comfort for each one of the 32 dorm rooms and put overall HVAC management of the KKG House into the hands of the house director. Mitsubishi Electric VRF zoning systems are ideal for dormitories, hospitals, hotels, schools and assisted living facilities because the individual zone remote controllers allow the end user control over individual environments while the G-50A provides centralized control of all zones for the building manager.
Split-ductless System Installed In Media Room
The Sirius crew then replaced an old, noisy and inefficient two-ton airconditioning system with a Mitsubishi Electric two-ton INVERTER-driven heat pump system providing a continuous comfortable environment for the media room. A great energy-saver, this unit contains a variable-speed fan that measures the exact amount of cooling and heating to be delivered to this important space. The indoor unit is operated by a wireless remote controller that, in addition to temperature and fan speed, provides four modes of added comfort: cool, heat, auto and dry.
Completing the Job—Down to the Wire
“Thanks to Mitsubishi Electric, our 32 VRF zoning indoor units arrived in time, before the residents started coming back on August 10,” Scholnick said. “But because of the tight deadlines, we reversed the normal installation process and put up the drywall prior to performing the final installation of the indoor units.” Sirius Mechanical quickly removed and disposed of all hydronic fan coils throughout the building. They then patched and painted all the areas where air grilles, fan coils and thermostats had been eliminated.
Mitsubishi Electric helps KKG Save $45,000!
“By August 15, the job was 100 percent complete—on time and on budget,” Scholnick said. “I honestly can say that the Mitsubishi Electric R2- Series product literally saved this job! It saved us from many installation, start-up and maintenance headaches, and was actually the only solution for this particular application. The systems have been running flawlessly for the past six months. Because its ingenious design requires less equipment, Mitsubishi Electric actually saved KKG more than $45,000 versus other technology.”
“However, the successful installation of the Mitsubishi Electric solution would not have been possible were it not for the cooperation and understanding of the entire USC KKG board, headed by Kathy Creagan, board president. It was a pleasure working with her and the entire board throughout,” Scholnick concluded.
Fantastic! Everything is under Control! Nice and Toasty!
“Fantastic! I have never seen anything like it,” said Donna Lou Guay, USC KKG house director, “The Mitsubishi Electric VRF zoning system works beautifully. Because of the system’s advanced controls network, I can control the thermostats of every single room in the house from the computer in my office.
It’s so simple. When I close the house and go on vacation, I can turn the entire system down to 72 degrees and have the peace of mind knowing that everything is under control. When we had that nasty freeze in Southern California recently, the entire house was nice and toasty! This system works like a dream,” Guay concluded.
