To reach this level of comfort, mechanical engineer Jerry Lordi, admits he sweated out the culmination of a six-month air conditioning retrofit project he designed expressly for the 90-minute pre-election debate and the more than 25 million television viewers.

Although the retrofit of Case Western Reserve University’s (Case) 50-year-old, Horsburgh/Emerson Gymnasium had passed simulated tests with flying colors and was loaded with equipment redundancy, Lordi, a mechanical engineer at Middough Consulting Inc., worried about “Murphy’s Law.”

To stifle “Murphy’s Law,” the building’s electrical service was supplemented with one temporary 1,200-Kw diesel generator. The project’s newly installed rooftops also have redundant compressors. Additionally, service people from project HVAC contractor Environmental Conditioning Systems, the building automation system manufacturer, and the Case facilities department were on hand the entire day of the telecast, which mandated prior background checks, fingerprinting and monitoring by Secret Service agents.

Lordi’s HVAC design had to meet a stringent criteria specified by the debate sponsor, Commission on Presidential Debates. Stipulations included a non-varying temperature of 65F monitored by a sensor under the debate table, a gentle airflow velocity of 50 fpm that wouldn’t disturb candidates’ hair or desktop papers, and recording studio quality noise criteria (NC) of 15 to 20. Another engineering challenge was keeping the debate area 65F and the remainder of the gym 67F via a different sensor, which was virtually air conditioning a space within a space. Lordi solved all those air distribution challenges while also providing a long-term aesthetic solution by specifying the permanent installation of fabric ductwork by DuctSox, Dubuque, Iowa.

Super Quiet Operation

Under Lordi’s specification, ECS installed Vibro-Curb II, Thybar Corp., spring isolated curbs for the rooftops to keep mechanical equipment noise and vibration to a minimum. Supply air from the units goes through a custom-manufactured Aerosonics, sound attenuator.

From the sound attenuator, Lordi’s design called for a snow and rain-shedding duct. The duct goes through the roof into a ceiling-mounted plenum that supplies two 36-foot-long and two 45-foot-long runs of 32-inch-diameter Sedona, DuctSox’s premium model. Lordi specified Comfort-Flow fabric which allows approximately 15 percent of the air to be gently distributed through the fabric itself while the remaining 85 percent is dispersed through DuctSox’s Sonic Vents, which run the entire length of the duct and contribute to quiet and gentle airflow. Robert Laneve, director of engineering at manufacturer’s representative, Air Control Products, assisted in the airflow design with flow and throw analyses diagrams.

Lordi even designed a “Murphy’s Law” buffer into the custom designed fabric duct’s airflow design. Off-the-shelf DuctSox typically have ½-inch static pressure, however Lordi specified ¾-inch static pressure. “Our ideal rooftop operation was designed around a very low velocity for the purposes of limiting noise,” noted Lordi. “In the event noise was still a factor and we had to turn down the rooftops to as much as 60 percent with the variable speed drives, I wanted some wiggle room.”

“We were impressed with the air movement of fabric duct and we’re now considering it in a factory application involving circuitry soldering because it doesn’t create drafts,” said Hank Bloom, president, Environmental Conditioning Systems.

Now that the debate is over, CASE has a world class air conditioning system. Director of Facility Services, Eugene Matthews, who was introduced at the GreenBuild Expo environmental conference in Pittsburgh, was integral in the choice of blue DuctSox to match school colors. Matthews also ordered factory silk-screening of white school logos on the fabric. “Based on the performance of the gym’s air distribution system, we’re now considering fabric duct for other campus building applications,” said Matthews.

“The challenge of this job was the fact it had to be perfect the first time because the debate was just one night with no time for changing anything,” said Lordi. “Usually an engineer can design something well on paper, but in application it might need refinements. In this instance, there was no second chance, it had to be right the first time.”