West County Elementary School

BKM served as the MEP consultant for the Twin Rivers Elementary School project. This project consists of new elementary school which is part of the Anne Arundel County Public School system and is located in the western portion of county. The new facility is approximately 87,000 SF and has a state rated capacity of 598 students. The school includes the following spaces: general classrooms, learning studios, media center, computer lab, art room, music room, gymnasium, cafeteria, before/after care spaces, as well as, administrative and health/guidance areas.  The project was designed to achieve LEED Silver certification.

The mechanical system designed for this school includes a chiller and boilers as the main cooling and heating sources for the building. Chilled and heating water are circulated throughout the building to serve fan coil units (FCUs) in each classroom. The FCUs are ducted, above ceiling, re-circulating units which provide heating and cooling to each occupied space. Ventilation air is provided through rooftop DOAS (dedicated outside air system) units with energy recovery wheels. The administration area and media center are served by air cooled heat recovery VRF systems so that they can operate independent from the central chiller. These spaces also have a DOAS unit for ventilation purposes. The gymnasium, cafeteria and before/after care area are each equipped with a single zone air handling unit with a chilled water coil (for normal operation) and a DX coil (for summer operation when the chiller is de-energized).

The building is served by a 2,500 amp, 480 V/ 3 phase electrical service. The school is equipped with a permanent 250 kW gas fired generator to meet the life safety and optional standby needs of the building and also has a portable generator connection box for use when the permanent generator is out of service. The school is also equipped with LED lighting throughout and includes provisions to accommodate future solar PV panels on over 40% of the roof area.