Hillsboro Public Service Building - Hillsboro, OR

In 2019, Washington County completed a $30M seismic and energy upgrade of the Public Services Building in Hillsboro, OR. The retrofit was meant to strengthen the building against “the big one”, installing seismic fortifications as well as a complete energy and controls upgrade for the mechanical and lighting systems. The 4-story building is the county’s main administrative building, housing Human Resources, Support Services, and the Health and Human Services groups. HMS was contracted to install BAS controls, installing Eclypse BACnet/IP controls, and integrating with Acuity’s nLight AIR lighting controls (the first nLight AIR installation in the country). The existing building had older KMC and Reliable controls which were replaced with the modern Distech system. 
 

Mechanical systems in the building include a central chilled water plant, a central boiler plant, 3 main air handling units, and nearly 200 fan coil units and VAV boxes. In addition, 5 de-watering pumps sit below the water table to keep the foundations and ground dry – all monitored and controlled by the Distech Controls system. 
 

Why Distech Controls Technology?
 

Distech Controls was chosen because of its ability to connect all the building’s systems easily and efficiently, including the lighting controls, into a modern and unified graphical user interface. Mychael Havens, the Facilities Operations Supervisor for the county, commented that “The Distech system installed by HMS Commercial Services in our Public Services Building has provided a wonderful diagnostics tool, providing our staff with a quick graphical representation of how our equipment is operating at any given time.”
 

The county was also looking for an open system that would provide a competitive and multiple-sourced platform for all of its 32 buildings. Mr. Havens added “Washington County made a decision a few years ago to begin installing more open-source controls systems in a conscientious effort to efficiently utilize public funds and maintain a fair competitive bid process among potential vendors for larger replacement controls projects.

Distech Controls Solutions Installed:

  • ECY Series Eclypse Controllers
  • Acuity nLight AIR lighting controls

Stakeholders:

  • Distech Integrators: HMS

 

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