The price of building safety and comfort is 100+

How to calculate the payback of an office high-rise building, taking into account the costs of equipment and operation of the building's engineering systems? This question was repeatedly addressed to Viktor Somikov, Chief engineer of the Vysotsky Business Center, by participants of last year's 100+ ForumRussia forum during technical tours of the first skyscraper in the capital of the Urals. And the work of the section at the round table meeting "Operation of a high-rise facility and adjacent territory. Intelligent control systems for high-rise buildings" aroused such interest among the participants that after graduation, the specialists discussed the features of engineering networks of skyscrapers for a long time.

According to the experience of operating engineering systems of high-rise buildings, the chief engineer of Vysotsky can rightfully be considered one of the first in Yekaterinburg. He has been serving in his responsible position for more than ten years, being a permanent specialist since the construction of the first commercial high-rise building, the multifunctional 24-storey building of the Antey business center. And since November 2010, his field of activity has expanded to 54 floors of the Vysotsky skyscraper, with a total area of 117 thousand square meters.

Viktor Somikov still says that he is ready to share his experience with anyone who is interested in the operation of high-rise buildings and willingly told our correspondent about the daily routine of the maintenance service.

Principles of providing comfort

- Solutions to create a safe, supportive and healthy environment in a high-rise building are laid at the design stage. There are standards and norms for calculating the optimal design of engineering networks, but only taking into account the important aspect of the extreme environmental impact to which the structure is exposed in our conditions, it is possible to design a system that will ensure reliability and comfort during operation.

When calculating the engineering networks of the skyscraper, the designers used the best international experience, but taking into account adaptation to climatic conditions. It is no coincidence that Vysotsky is the northernmost skyscraper in the world. The weather in our region dictates special requirements not only for the structure of the building, but also for systems for maintaining the internal microclimate, because sometimes seasonal temperature fluctuations can exceed 100 degrees. It is all the more important to maintain an optimal climate in a skyscraper with a solid glazed facade, so that the premises do not turn into a giant greenhouse. During the off-season, simultaneous cooling of the sunny side and heating of the rooms in the shaded part of the building becomes a difficult task.

The business center is equipped with a central supply and exhaust ventilation system, 35 units of supply air units alone. The cold center consists of 7 chillers and 8 dry coolers. Each office has heating convectors and fan coils for cooling. All this, along with athermal glazing, allows you to maintain an optimal indoor air temperature.

The most complex technical filling of the building

- The building is equipped with an automated dispatching control system based on SiemensDESIGO. Readings of thousands of sensors that monitor pressure, temperature, air flow velocity and dozens of other parameters in the systems are displayed on the monitors of the round-the-clock control room. At the same time, we do not exclude the traditional inspection of heating, plumbing, ventilation systems, and equipment on all technical floors. We have established the following procedure: visual inspection is carried out once a day.

I believe that the smooth operation of all systems is based on the qualified work of our engineering service. Even the most highly intelligent electronics is nothing without the expertise of specialists. The core of the team has been formed since the beginning of the construction of the building, each specialist has extensive experience in operating engineering systems. We have been working together for many years on the principle of mutual assistance and support. All together, this is the key to the proper operation of our unique facility.

Fire protection systems on guard of safety

- Our service pays special attention to fire safety issues. Vysotsky is equipped with an automatic fire alarm system based on Cerberus from Siemens. It monitors the uninterrupted operation of 6.5 thousand smoke detectors. We regularly check the automatic smoke extraction and back-up system, fire pumps, shut-off valves, and fire alarms once every two weeks. A certain difficulty lies in the fact that there are no general standards for fire safety in buildings above 100 meters. They are still using the regulatory framework that was developed in the 50s of the twentieth century for Moscow skyscrapers, and they are trying to bring it into line with the realities of today.

The fire safety systems designed for Vysotsky were set in the STU developed by specialists from the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Fire Protection. To verify the decisions made, we even built a mock–up - a three-story building, similar in design to the future skyscraper, equipped with fire extinguishing and alarm systems, and conducted field tests, actually setting fire to this building.

Vysotsky is the only building in our city where three fire extinguishing systems are used: fire cranes, a sprinkler system in the premises and a sprinkler system for irrigation of facades. The latter is made so that in the event of a fire, the glass does not burst from overheating, creating additional traction inside the building.

There is a certain feature in the fact that an office building is not a static structure, the interior is often redeveloped. Because of this, it is necessary to change the engineering systems in the offices: supply and exhaust ventilation, fire extinguishing and fire alarm systems in accordance with the standards of special conditions in the building. Often, the banal movement of a partition wall entails a whole range of measures for redevelopment and installation of systems in a building.

Where is the heart of the skyscraper?

- I consider the autonomous boiler house with a capacity of 13.7 MW, which supplies Vysotsky with heat and hot water, to be the heart of the building. Several dozen pumps are operating to supply heat. Dependence on the urban heating system is eliminated and heating can be turned on even in June, if the weather conditions of our Urals require it.

The hot water supply system uses heated cold water, we do not use so-called technical hot water, so our water supply does not have the characteristic smell familiar to most residents of Yekaterinburg.

For optimal operation of the equipment, the building is divided into four zones, with technical floors between them, where the equipment is located. Heat exchangers with high efficiency are also located here, which make it possible to separate water systems by pressure.The heat loss on them is no more than 10 degrees. If we have a water temperature of 90 degrees at the outlet of the boiler room, then optimal temperature water is supplied to the spa on the 54th floor.

Economic efficiency of a high-rise

- Until now, the Vysotsky Business Center remains the only example of the use of engineering systems in skyscrapers in our and neighboring regions. Our maintenance service has accumulated some experience, which we are ready to share. On the forum, I was asked whether it is profitable to build buildings above 200 meters and how to calculate the payback of such a project? It is impossible to give a definite answer.

World practice shows that in buildings above 200 meters, the cost of life support increases dramatically. For example, for the normal operation of the water supply system in a building up to 200 meters, a station with a pressure of about 20 atmospheres is sufficient. This is exactly what is installed in Vysotsky. To supply water above this level, an increase in pressure is required, and, accordingly, thick-walled pipes of increased strength. Or you need to equip additional water pumping stations to the upper floors. It is much more expensive. In the world, such a system is used on skyscrapers in China and the United Arab Emirates. In Russia, such a high-rise water supply solution was used at the Ostankino TV Tower.

When a skyscraper is built, it is assumed that it is a building for the ages. It is impossible to predict the financial situation in the country and in the world for such a long period. Therefore, it is quite difficult to calculate the payback period for such projects. But, in any case, "Vysotsky" has already become one of the symbols of the city, the residents are proud of it. At least that's why we believe that the construction of the skyscraper was not in vain.