Des Moines Social Club

The Des Moines Social Club resides in the historic Des Moines Firehouse number 1. The club occupies two buildings and multiple floors, providing it enough space for local artists and acts of all kinds to entertain the community.

MECHANICAL

Multiple strategies were implemented during design to efficiently provide services to the Des Moines Social Club buildings.  Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) systems were installed in standard occupancy spaces to provide optimal heating and cooling comfort.  The VRF systems were ideal for this historic application as they allowed heating and cooling energy to be transferred via small piping in lieu of bulky ductwork. Furthermore, the VRF systems allow individual set points among the building occupants while also providing the capacity to recover energy between zones in heating and zones in cooling. An energy recovery ventilator (ERV) saved nearly 70% of the energy that would have been lost as a part of building exhaust and used it to pre-condition ventilation air. Larger occupancy spaces employed high efficiency, variable speed roof top units to provide heating and cooling appropriate for the varying occupant loads. Low flow plumbing fixtures reduce water consumption, and domestic hot water comes from 95% efficient condensing gas water heaters in each building.

LIGHTING AND ELECTRICAL

Lighting is provided via automatic control in all spaces: a combination of occupancy sensors and time-of-day controls keep the lights off during the few down hours the buildings experience.  When daylight is available in the exterior rooms, sensors automatically turn off the lights.