Services

Our HVAC department, headed by Carlo Marzot, has a staff of engineers and designers (several registered Professional Engineers and LEED AP). It has enormous experience and expertise with every conceivable type of air conditioning and ventilation system commercially available. Our engineers are constantly being briefed by major manufacturers as to the current state of the art equipment in monthly lunch and learn sessions. Our HVAC department head encourages each and every member of his department to push the boundaries of energy efficiency and to always ask “what if…” With the computer simulation technology we have available, we can provide the answer to that “what if ” question and help our clients to build more efficient buildings that use less of our precious resources.

HVAC systems are at the forefront of energy use and our engineers are at the forefront of how best to design these systems to meet and exceed the measurable standards such as LEED, Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC) and others.

We have successfully designed Hotels for almost every major Hotel Company in the world, we have designed the HVAC systems for many of the tallest buildings in the southeast US. Many of these towers are in the range of 60 to 80 stories and house multiple uses – hotel, residential, retail, and commercial office.

We have also successfully renovated and repositioned existing buildings (some on the register of historic buildings). This particular type of project is unique in that no two existing structures are identical and all required diagnostic evaluations, documentation of existing conditions and equipment to remain or be removed, detailed system evaluation and finally preparation of construction documents with material and equipment specifications.

Once construction has begun we add one of our very experienced construction field personnel to do periodic field observations to ensure general compliance with our plans and specifications and to resolve any issues that may arise during the construction process.

Upon completion of construction our engineers are again involved to ensure that our energy goals have been met or exceeded and that the quality of the project meets or exceeds our expectations and that of our client.

The Electrical Department headed by Bob Raynor with his staff of Electrical Engineers and Electrical Designers (several of whom are registered Professional Engineers and or maintain LEED AP status) have the responsibility to support our HVAC, Plumbing and Fire Sprinkler Departments.

These Engineers gather electrical information from our HVAC, Plumbing, and Fire Protection Department Engineers and their equipment schedules to apply electrical load requirements to the electric riser diagrams and panel schedules which then enable us to meet with the local utility company to determine the most economical method of providing electric service to the proposed project.

After completing the appropriate information on our schematic electrical plans we then meet with one of many of the local Florida based utility companies such as Florida Power and Light, Duke Energy, Orlando Utility Co., Jacksonville Electric Authority, and Gulf Power to obtain their approval of our proposed Electrical Service to the project.

We have continued to maintain an excellent working relationship with the local Utility Companies which enables us to obtain this information for both permanent and temporary construction power very early on in the project which is usually on a critical path to the initial construction start date of every new project.

We have set the standard for vertical power distribution in very tall residential buildings by applying “stack vaults” which enables us to bring utility company voltage up into the building core to utility company vaults thereby eliminating the need for vertical bus ducts and allowing us to bring 120/240 volt power to the residential units thereby allowing all kitchen appliances within the dwelling unit to operate at maximum efficiency.

Our Electrical Department has also designed vertical power distribution systems for high rise Hotel and Office buildings whereas we have achieved LEED Gold accreditation by applying electronic sub metering along with emergency generator on demand branch circuits for shell office and retail tenant spaces within the same vertical distribution that is used for normal utility power to the tenant electrical panels.

We design the Emergency and Standby Power, Fire Alarm, and applicable Lightning and Surge Protection systems within each building to maintain compliance with local codes and ordinances and the integrity of the building’s Life Safety systems.

Additionally, we work with Lighting Consultants, Interior Designers, and Landscape Architects to apply the most energy efficient and the most cost effective lighting fixtures, lighting controls, and dimming systems to each project which enables us to provide the most efficient light sources for each of our projects.

Mike Torrey (Department Head) and his staff of engineers and designers (several of whom are CIPD and LEED AP) have extensive experience and expertise in a myriad of projects. Some members of the staff (including Mike) at Feller Engineering have over 40 years of design experience. Some of the project types we have been involved with include Hotels, Office Buildings, Court Houses, Fire Stations, Residential, shopping malls and stadiums.

We have designed some of the tallest buildings in the southeast US employing the most advanced and innovative pumping, piping and heating systems available. Some of the designs we have employed for domestic hot water in very tall residential and mixed us projects have been uniquely suited for these very tall buildings and we have a 100% hot water delivery satisfaction record from all of our clients.

We are constantly at the forefront of the latest techniques for water conservation and have designed numerous rain water recycling systems and for over 20 years we have incorporated condensate water capture and reuse systems in all of our projects thereby saving thousands of gallons of potable water every year! Some of our design concepts have included down feed tank systems for very tall buildings, sovent (single stack) sanitary waste systems and capturing waste heat from mechanical chillers, cooling towers and commercial laundry systems to pre-heat domestic hot water systems to save project energy.

We have been instrumental in achieving LEED certification for many of our projects.

During the course of design and construction we work very closely with the design team, contractor and sub-contractors to help enable the team to deliver a higher quality project with a smallest possible carbon footprint for the developer.

Our Fire Protection Department headed by Kris Singh, provides state of the art fire sprinkler system design for all building types including but not limited to high and low rise residential, commercial, office, retail, medical office, educational, nursing homes and congregate living facilities. Many of our projects are mixed use and some are super high rise greater than 750 feet tall.

System types include automatic wet type standpipes and sprinklers, pre-action/deluge, FM200 and foam.

All systems are hydraulically designed per the latest National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards, Fire Prevention and Building Codes and Factory Mutual requirements.

We enjoy excellent working relations with all the local Fire Marshalls' and their staffs.

The following projects represent some of the various types of projects for which we have provided fire sprinkler system design:

Panorama 80 story mixed use residential/office/retail – downtown Miami Porsche Tower very high end residential condominium – Sunny Isles Beach St. Regis Hotel and 2 St. Regis condo buildings – Bal Harbour Palm Beach Outlet Mall in West Palm Beach – Major renovations of Miami Dolphins Stadium.

We routinely work with an extensive list of subcontractors under us whose work we supervise and coordinate. We will submit you our fee proposals upon your further request for the following alternative services.

1. Amenities lighting and Common areas lighting as well as site and pool deck lighting, including lighting controls and all fixture specifications.
2. Full scope LEED Principal services.
3. All Telecom, Security, CCTV, Wi-Fi, CATV, SATV, Access Control, and systems.
4. Rational Analysis Report.
5. Commissioning of MEP, Fire Alarm and Fire Protection systems.

If you hire us on the above services, you will have the convenience of dealing only with our firm.

One of the newer departments at Feller Engineering is the Green Building Design Department. This Group headed by Parastoo Sanjari has become one of our most important especially with the requirements of many cities that a project over a certain size must meet one of the recognized state or national energy standards- LEED (and the city of Miami requires LEED silver), Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC), National Green Building Standard (NGBS), etc.

To comply, it requires creating the holistic energy model for every building working closely with our experienced HVAC and Electric departments to specify the most energy efficient HVAC equipment and lighting systems appropriate for each project. It also involves working with our plumbing department to select the correct water consuming fixtures to meet local codes and the recognized state or national energy standard we are using for the particular project.

Our extensive knowledge of what the rating system reviewers are currently requiring has enabled us to be very successful in achieving our client's desired certification level – be that just LEED certified or silver or gold.

Our services in this area include:

• Energy modeling
• Model Energy Compliance Calculations (various states)
• Commissioning On line template completion for the various rating agencies
• Preparation of Basis of Design Narratives.

There is no such thing as a “perfect” set of engineering plans. However in order to be as accurate and all inclusive as possible we utilize the expertise of our senior engineers (some have many years working as contractors in addition to years as design engineers). These highly skilled and experienced engineers provide peer review services for all of our projects to help ensure excellent quality control and accuracy regarding code issues, constructability and cost effectiveness. In addition, we are frequently asked to provide our Peer Review services for projects which have been designed by other engineering firms so we can give our opinion on areas of improvement.

Occasionally one of our clients or one of the contractors becomes involved in litigation on one of their projects. In those situations we are available to assist in ascertaining the nature of the problem, limiting the scope of the issues to the basic facts of the situation and in general (due to our extensive experience in residential, commercial and retail projects) try to reduce our client's exposure within the context of that litigation.