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System Description/Analysis

Electricity

The Summit’s power comes underground from PECO. This powers through the switchgear in the main electrical room which then powers the substation. The substation controls all of the panels. There is a main electrical room on the lower level and one or two standard size electrical rooms on every floor. The main electrical room plan is shown in Figure 1. An example of one of the standard electrical rooms is shown in Figure 2. 

 

 

The building is required to follow the following building codes and standards:

  • Regulations of State of Pennsylvania

  • Regulations of City of Philadelphia

  • B.O.C.A.

  • National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) #110

  • National Electrical Code – latest edition

  • Underwriters’ Laboratories, Inc.

  • National Electrical Manufacturers Association

 

 

The power system is pretty standard in its use of emergency power. The basic requirements by the codes listed above include:

  • Standby power generators

    • Diesel operated

  • Smoke control systems

    • 6 Smoke evacuation fans on roof

  • Exit signs

  • Means of egress illumination

  • Elevators that are part of accessible means of egress

    • 6 elevators

  • Smoke proof enclosures

  • Rooftop air handling units

    • 5 AHUs

 

 

Figure 1: Main Electrical Room

Figure 2: 4th Floor Electrical Room South

There is a 600kW diesel generator to provide power to the designated emergency power systems.This generator is located outside the Summit and is pad mounted. The emergency power is distributed through 2 main feeds. Each of these feeds utilizes their own individual automatic transfer switch. This process is shown below as a line diagram in Figure 3. Panel LRPH runs off of normal power and if there is an emergency, the transfer switch will be triggered. When the switch is triggered, the connection switches to the emergency power line. The loads connected to the back-up generator include:

  • Fire Pump Controller

  • Smoke Evacuation Fans

  • Emergency Lighting

  • Security Systems

Figure 3: Diesel Generator System

To approximate the annual power usage in the Summit, simple calculations are shown in Table 1 to the left. With the overall area and the typical W/ft^2 for lighting, receptacles, HVAC, and elevators, we were able to estimate the annual power usage of the Summit. 

Table 1: Annual Electrical Load Estimation

Lighting

The Summit features a Lighting system composed of the components listed in the fixture schedules below. Figure 5 shows the lighting fixture schedule and Figure 6 shows the dining lighting fixture schedule.

 

Figure 5: Lighting Fixture Schedule

Figure 6: Dining Fixtures

At this point in construction and design, it does not seem like the lighting control system has been chosen. An estimated 70% of the lighting fixtures are standard lighting panels, which is a standard number for this type of building. An estimated 20% of these figures are egress lights. All egress lights are located in the common areas and areas closest to exits of the building like the stairs, corridors, loading dock, and around the entrances. In the corridors, one out of every three or four lights are egress lights. Figure 5 shows a corridor with egress and regular lights. These emergency lights are on different circuits than the regular lights and always run. They will be powered from the diesel generator if the power goes out.

Figure 7: Corridor with lighting shown

A sample lighting plan of two of the units available is shown in Figure 6. In these units, all of the receptacles installed will be tamper-resistant. In all accessible units, the fire alarm notification device will be a combination speaker/strobe. All conduit and cables from lighting will be concealed within the floor/ceiling slab or walls. In the units, exposed conduit and cable is not permitted.

 

Figure 8: Living units with lighting shown

System Improvements

With the information given in the electrical drawings, it does not seem like there is anything in place electrically to save energy. The building could do more to harvest natural light, which could reduce lighting loads. Also, there are no timed lighting switches or occupancy sensors that could lower lighting loads. The building could also incorporate systems to be more self sufficient for power like solar panels or a wind turbine.  LEED certification was not a concern for this building, so there wasn’t much incentive to use energy saving systems.

Figure 4: Electrical Single Line Riser Diagram

Figure 4 shows the electrical single line riser diagram. The load centers are boxed in red. The substations are boxed in yellow.

 

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