Replacement 80 Ton Dehumidifier

This project was based on the replacement of an 80 ton 100% outside air Dehumidifier Unit feeding two Air Handler Units serving the Operating Room for the Jackson Memorial Hospital at Downtown Miami.

One of the challenging factors was the limited time we had to perform the work. This dehumidifier unit is in charge of lowering the humidity in the operating rooms and for that reason could not be off for a long period of time.

This job was Scheduled to be done in the winter. A weekend with relatively low humidity was chosen to do this project so that it affected as little as possible.

Days prior to this project, the unit was shut down to do humidity tests to ensure that it would not affect the operating room at all.

Due to the short time to carry out the work we made sure we had all the necessary materials to finish the job without any inconvenience.

This project required the use of a 120 ton crane. As a prevention and safety method, a “sketch” was made to have as exact as possible the route that the crane will follow to reach the location where the disassembled unit will be picked up and the new unit will be placed.

Due to the complexity and limitation of space in the location where this project was carried out, the exact positions where the flatbed that will take the disassembled unit would be found and the place where the 120-ton crane will be parked were carefully coordinated.

The crane brought down the old unit and placed it on the flatbed. Old Unit was steered out of the hospital very carefully due to the high foot traffic. The new unit had been waiting in the back of the hospital that had been designated a week before to store this unit to have it ready for the day of carrying out the project.

Once the old machine was removed and taken out safely. The new unit was picked up and brought to the location where the work was being done. The unit had to be brought up by pieces as per  manufacturer’s instructions. The unit had to be assembled in the place that it was going to be installed.

The first part of the unit was brought up and placed on the shelf. The second part was more complicated because it had to be set and aligned to be able to attach the two halves for proper installation.

Once Unit was successfully assembled we proceeded to measured the supply duct and we expedited fabrication  to be able be able to install it next day.

As this was being done, the pipefitters began measuring pipes and began making the hot and cold water connections.