The new $48 million Aquatic Center at Mylan Park is unquestionably the most state-of-the-art indoor pool complex in West Virginia. Located in Morgantown, the 90,000-square-foot complex combines a separate competitive swimming/diving pool and community pool under one roof.
The complex is a model of fast-tracking and value engineering, cutting hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of HVAC-related equipment originally specified for the project, through the use of fabric ducts.
The original design’s PVC-coated single-wall spiral metal duct was substituted with fabric duct manufactured by FabricAir, which reduced ductwork material costs by $55,000. Switching the mechanical design — from split-system indoor pool dehumidifiers to semi-custom packaged systems, manufactured by Aaon — saved more than $550,000 in equipment and piping costs.
Fabric duct also decreased labor costs, because it installs up to 60 percent faster than metal duct. This shaved six to eight weeks off the ductwork installation time and allowed other trades to complete their work sooner as well.
The fabric duct’s engineered permeability allows airflow through the fabric surface, preventing condensation.
Superior indoor air quality that surpassed ASHRAE Standard 62.1 was an important goal for the project. The fabric supply air dispersion layout, along with a return air strategy and source-capture evacuator system manufactured by Paddock Pool Equipment, promote IAQ by preventing chloramine accumulation.
The value-engineered final mechanical design features two 150-ton, 65,000-cfm ground-mounted dehumidifiers that remove up to 1,320 pounds of moisture per hour from the competitive pool area, and a 90-ton, 30,000-cfm rooftop dehumidifier for the community pool. All three dehumidifiers recover energy with hot gas reheat coils energized during the dehumidification cycles. They also recover return air energy to pre-condition outdoor air via a sensible energy recovery wheel manufactured by AirXChange.
