Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA), Offutt AFB, NE

Engineered Controls of Omaha, NE and the local Honeywell HBS office combined their efforts to win the contract for the environmental control system at the Air Forces new Weather Agency facility (AFWA) headquarters located at US Strategic Command site at Offutt AFB, NE.

AFWA is responsible for providing around-the-clock weather analyses, forecasts, and warnings for global climatological intelligence to military, DOD decision-makers, national agencies, and allied nations for the planning and execution of missions across the complete spectrum of world-wide military operations. AFWA traces its heritage to the organization of the Meteorological Service of the Signal Corps during World War 1. Throughout many organizational assignments, on October 15, 1997 the Air Force designated Air Force Weather Agency a field operating agency and relocated it to Offutt AFB, NE.

Engineered Controls was contracted to provide a complete facility management and control system that would tie into the Air Force bases existing EBI front-end system. “We won the project because of our proven track record for service and support, coupled with the Honeywell product line at Offutt AFB”, said Engineered Controls General Manger Pat Killeen. “The base liked the team approach with the Honeywell ACI contractor and the Honeywell HBS office working together.”

The working arrangement consisted of Engineered Controls taking the contract leadership role and managed the project. Engineered Controls provided all the Honeywell temperature control equipment, the electrical installation labor, digital controller programming, and provided all project commissioning in conjunction with the US Corp of Engineers. The final EBI front-end software data base programming was provided by the local Honeywell HBS office.

The mechanical design that serves the 188,000 square foot technology center consisted of a large centralized heating and cooling plant that served 18 CRAC units; various fan coil units, blower coils, unit heaters, and ventilating units; and 12 variable volume AHU’s. The VAV AHU’s delivered conditioned air to 100 under floor variable volume fan powered boxes by way of an under floor air distribution system. The variable volume fan powered box sequence presented Engineered Controls a unique challenge because traditional Excel 5000 product was not capable VAV control at the XL10 level. To accomplish the VAV sequence requirement, Engineered Controls used first generation Spyder controllers for the VAV fan powered boxes. The EBI tie-in was accomplished by using Honeywell Webs (Jace) controllers to serve the fan powered box data via BACnet over IP. “This is a first to integrate Spyder controllers to EBI and it worked very well” said Honeywell HBS sales rep Dan Pistulka.

The project was especially interesting because of the LEED-certified, environmentally friendly “green” building requirement. The AFWA headquarters facility is the first facility in the Air Force to earn a Gold LEED rating for new construction. The AFWA facility is home to more than 650 AFWA personnel.

The AFWA facility was completed in the spring of 2008. Engineered Controls currently provides all the temperature control maintenance for the building and the local Honeywell HBS office provides all the front-end software maintenance on the EBI workstations.