Project Brief

The Chinmaya Mission renovated an existing church on Big Oak Road in Lower Makefield Township, near Yardley, as its Tri-State Center, a temple and community center with a congregation hall, a dining hall that doubles as a lecture space, classrooms and front offices. KeRi designed the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems for the alteration and stayed on through construction.

KeRi calculated the heating and cooling loads room by room and designed five new gas-fired packaged units, each serving its own part of the building so the congregation hall, which fills for events, can run independently of the classrooms and offices. The larger units use single-zone variable air volume fans, and every unit was checked for energy code compliance. The design also added a new electrical service coordinated with PECO, an 81 gallon gas water heater and sump pumps, and KeRi reviewed the contractor's HVAC and pump submittals and walked the finished work to issue a punch list before close-out.

MEP Engineering Scope

What We Engineered

MEP systems for the church-to-temple conversion:

• Room-by-room heating and cooling load calculations
• Five gas-fired packaged cooling and heating units zoned by use
• Single-zone VAV fans on the larger units and energy code compliance for every system
• New electrical service coordinated with PECO
• 81 gallon gas water heater and sump pumps
• Submittal review and a construction punch list walk

The Challenge

An existing church had to become a temple and community center whose congregation hall fills for events while classrooms and offices keep a steadier, everyday load.

Our Solution

KeRi zoned the building across five gas-fired packaged units so each area runs on its own schedule, and saw the work through submittals and a final punch list.