Dalkita

Architecture & Construction - Distilled Spirits Plants

design

Egress!

Egress is defined as “the action of going out of or leaving a place”. 

Egress is a major component of safety features in the building, and has an entire chapter devoted to it in the IBC (International Building Code).

This post will cover some of the main concepts that the code uses to ensure a safe way for occupants to exit a building in case of an emergency, fire, etc…

Occupant Loads

You’ve probably seen a sign posted in some rooms/ buildings saying something like ” no more than 155 persons in the space”. This isn’t an arbitrary number. The code has calculated “occupant load factors” (OLF) for different uses of spaces. Table 1004.1.2 is the place this is found.

For instance, if a space is used as an office, that is calculated at a rate of 100 sf per person. So If you have 1,000 sf office room, the occupant load would be 10 people (1,000/100=10). 

A 1,000 sf room used for a concert type setting with standing room only would be calculated at a different rate of 5 sf per person. That would result in a much higher occupant load of 200 people (1,000/5=200)

Egress Sizing

We use the number of occupants serving a stair or hall to size how wide it needs to be. Stairs use the multiplier or .3 inches per occupant. All other egress components, such as halls and doorways use the multiplier .2 inches per occupant. 

So, for instance, if you have 300 occupants, a total door width of 60″ (300x.2=60) would be required. A space serving this many occupants would certainly need to have at least 2 doors, so (2) 36″ doors would meet the requirement. 

In most cases, a 36″ wide door minimum is required. A 36″ wide stair is the code minimum in most cases. A 36″ wide corridor is the code minimum, but 42″ is more often required for various reasons. 

Number of exits & exiting configuration

The column in the above chart called “maximum occupant load of space” tells use the number of occupants that trigger the need to have more than 1 exit to a space. So, for instance, if you have 48 occupants in an office room, 1 exit is ok. If there’s 52 occupants, you must have 2 separate exits. 

When 2 exits are required from a space, room, or building, they must be separated by 1/3 the diagonal distance of the space, room, or building being served (in a sprinklered building). In an unsprinklered building, they must be separated by 1/2 the diagonal distance of the space, room or building being served. Please see the diagram below. 

http://buildingcodenyc.com/sketches/distance-between-exit-doors/

The Maximum Common Path Of Egress Travel (CPET) is another complex yet important concept. The CPET is the distance that one must travel before reaching a point that they have 2 separate options of paths to take to egress the building. 

So, even if an office room is 40 occupants, but from the most remote corner of the room to the door is over 100′, this one door will not suffice, and a second separate exit must be provided. 

Doors & Everything Else

The code has egress requirements for doors. In many cases, doors must swing in the direction of travel, but in some cases (usually under 50 occupants & depending on occpancy) the doors may swing in. You will usually see inswinging doors into smaller rooms within buildings, but main exterior doors or doors into stairwells will often swing out. 

Emergency egress lighting that turns on during a power loss must be provided along the egress path. These are often attached to exit signs, or also separate. 

Exit signs are an important feature to building egress. They are required in may situations, but there are several exceptions, the main one being that they are not required for rooms or areas needing only 1 exit. 

Theres several other concepts of egress that may apply to your building. Accessibility within the IBC & ADA should also be considered. If there are differences between the 2, the more stringent rule will prevail.  If you’d like to know more, please consult chapter 10 of the IBC, or seek help from a design professional. 

Thanks!

How Many Toilets Are Required In a Building

The IBC (International Building Code) and the IPC (International Plumbing Code) provide prescriptive requirements to calculating the minimum number of plumbing facilities needed in a building, including toilets, sinks, & drinking fountains. 

Calculate Occupant Load

First you need to calculate the number of occupants for a space. The occupant load table in chapter 10 of the building code show the square feet per occupant based on the function of the space. Please see the table below:

So, let go through an example of a bar/ tasting room that is 1,000 SF.

If there is loose, non-fixed furniture, we would use the occupant load factor above of 15 net sf.

The difference between net & gross is that net sf does not include unusable areas such as wall depths, hallways, etc…whereas gross sf includes all areas of the building. If you have a fixed bar in your tasting room, that area can be discounted from the net sf. 

1,000 / 15 = 67 occupants. Simple as that! Of course, these calculations can get much more involved when you begin to have multiple functions of space, etc. Hint… the back of the bar where customers do not go can actually be counted as a business occupancy, which is a different factor of 100 sf per person!

Calculate Minimum Number of Plumbing Fixtures

Now we have determined that we have 67 people. Lets figure out how many bathrooms that equates to. 

We go to Table 2902.1 in the IBC (or Table 403.1 in the IPC) to resolve the minimum plumbing fixtures required. The table takes into consideration the occupancy, and a more descriptive use of the space for these purposes. Check out the chart below:

For a bar, we would simply go with the A-2, Bar category. The Water Closets (Toilets) are required to be 1 fixture per 40 people, of each sex. So, We have 33.5 Males, and 33.5 Females. 33.5/40 is .84, so we are required to have 1 toilet for each sex. In most cases, you are required to have separate facilities for each sex (i.e. a separate mens room and womens room), but there are a few exceptions. If there are less than 15 occupants, a shared bathroom can be used. 

The lavatories (sinks) would be 33.5/75= .45, which would also just round up to 1 sink for each sex. 

The occupant loads and bathrooms can be a critical consideration when designing or remodeling a facility. If you are on the cusp of going over 1 toilet for each sex, that could mean totally different and larger bathrooms. About 80 occupants (40 male and 40 female) would be the threshold to stay under to keep it at 1 toilet for each sex. That translates to approximately 12oo sf for a tasting room area. 

Written By:

Matthew Taylor-Rennert

Programming Your Distillery

One of the first steps in the planning and design of a Distillery is Programming. It is an important process that will help you define the space you need, or want to have to achieve your goals as a business. 

Architectural programming is a structured research and problem-solving process used to identify, examine, and elaborate upon the various needs underlying a design project. The architectural program is the foundation for a creative, meaningful, and – ultimately – useful architectural solution.

– www.iammea.org/ggingras/cad115/arch_program.htm

Think broad brush strokes. First, we list out all the components that take up space in the facility. 

For example:

Bathrooms
Tasting Room
Back Bar
Gift Shop/ Merchandise
Bar Storage
Receiving
Grain Storage
Mashing
Milling
Fermentation
Stills
Barrel Storage
Bulk Storage
Bottling
Finished Products
Lab Area
Mechanical Room

A next helpful step is to figure out what adjacencies and relationships all these components have to one another. A useful tool is an adjacency diagram, shown below:

http://haitiutk.squarespace.com/haiti_utk_public/tag/adjacency-matrix

Another important aspect of programming is applying approximate square footages to the components. This can be easier said than done, but we can often base SF off of similar built projects. 

Taking the areas, components, and adjacencies to the next level, we can create a bubble diagram, with some examples seen below. This gets us closer to a real floor plan, without yet actually laying out walls and hard spaces. 


pinterest.com/pin/508484614160417859/?lp=true

All these tools can help inform the successful start to a distillery design, and bring up any potential issues that may lie ahead, so we can prepare for them. 

A common challenge we often come across is the mechanical room. The mech room wants to be near the stills, yet also hidden. The stills want to be near the tasting room for guests to look at. It often creates a situation that can often be a design hurdle! But with proper planning, it can be done well. 

Written By:

Matthew Taylor-Rennert

Harnessing The Sun – Passive Solar Sustainability Concepts In Buildings

There’s many ways to capture the energy of the sun to help heat a building. This can be often be done by simply thinking about the path of the sun. It may have no cost increase , and can potentially have dramatic savings on utility costs.

Using the Sun For Natural Heating & Cooling

The primary way to capture the sun’s heat is via south facing windows. Large South Facing windows can allow a room to capture that solar gain. The next step is to hold onto that heat. One way of keeping the heat in is by insulation. Proper insulation and making sure cracks are sealed is important for any building.

Another effective way to hold onto that heat is via thermal mass. Concrete floors are the best example of this mass. The sun can heat the concrete floors, and when the sun sets and the outside temperatures drop, the concrete will want to hold onto that heat and slowly release it, when you need it most!

 

Diagram of Simple Passive Solar Concepts

Now, what about the summer? We don’t want to have the sun heating our building when its 90 degrees out. The primary solution is overhangs. In summer, the sun is at a much high angle in the sky. Properly sized and places overhangs will block the sun from entering windows in Summer, but allow it in in winter when the angle is much lower in the sky. There’s many other ways to achieve this, such as shutters, blinds, etc.

Depending on your specific location, passive solar may need to be supplemented with more conventional heating methods, but it will certainly help ease the need for conventional energy uses!

We can also use trees to help block the sun in summer, but harness it in the winter. Deciduous trees (leaves fall off in winter) can be planted along the South Side of a building to block hot summer sun, and when the leaves fall off, they allow the rays through. They can also help block solar heat gains to walls and roofs in summer as well!

There is also the concept of a trombe wall. This is a thermal mass placed a few feet away from windows, creating a sort of room to capture all the solar gain, and then the heat is transferred from the mass wall and air space via natural or mechanical means.
Example of a Trombe Wall

Natural Lighting

It would seem obvious that the sun can provide us natural light and reduce the need for daytime artificial lighting, but many buildings are not designed to take advantage of this.

One of the big problems with natural lighting is that it can often provide too much light and glare. One way to mitigate this is by having North facing windows, or North facing skylights. This lets the best indirect light in. Care should be taken to not have too much glazing and loss of insulation. While well insulated glazing should be used for the North side, glass is still usually worse of an insulator than other materials. There is a sort of balance between all these factors that should be considered.

Example of North Facing Skylights for indirect lighting

Another concept of natural lighting is the light shelf. This is usually located near a window, and provides a shelf for light to bounce off of and reach further into a room. These can provide some great natural light.

Summary

Depending on the site, passive solar concepts can’t realistically always be used, but should be thought about as much as possible! With a little modification to the design of our buildings, we can potentially save big bucks on utilities, and use less non-renewable resources!

 

Article by:

Matthew Taylor-Rennert

Dalkita Architecture & Construction

Important Considerations for a Design of Boiler Rooms in Distilleries

example of a steam boiler used in a distillery

Location, Location, Location

Ideally, the location of a boiler room in your distillery wants to be as close to the equipment that it is serving as possible.  In general, this means as close to your still and fermenters as possible. This is meant to minimize the distance that steam, cold water, etc. needs to travel to get to and from your equipment, which reduces piping costs and heating/cooling loss. There isn’t a well-defined rule about proximity to equipment, but it is an important design consideration.

Boilers don’t necessarily need to be in a separate room from the distilling equipment, but often are.
Some important considerations regarding a separate boiler room include:

Cleanliness- Distillation & Fermentation can be rather wet processes, so it may be a good idea to keep boilers & other equipment separated.
Noise- Boilers, air compressors, & ancillary equipment can often be noisy.
Heat- Boilers put off significant heat, and can make the environment uncomfortable to be nearby.
Combustion- While there are safe ways to have combustion nearby your flammable liquid production (i.e. your still), it is generally a good idea to keep these 2 ingredients separated.

Boiler rooms need to have combustion air coming in from the outside as well as exhaust flues for fuel burning to release outside. Because the boiler room has connections to the outside, you generally want to place it near an exterior wall, or have available routing to the roof.

Certain equipment inside the boiler room will release some water at times, so a small floor drain is usually required. In existing buildings, be aware of the existing location of underground sewer lines and how a new drain will be able tie into the existing system. Distance from the existing sewer lines and depth of the existing sewer line both play a role, as sewer lines usually slope at about ¼” per foot.

example of a boiler room plan

Area

For small to medium craft distilleries, with production space ranging from approximately 1000-5000 square feet, we see boiler room areas ranging from approximately 130-270 square feet. This is 5%-12% of this area required for this room, with a higher percentage in the smaller distilleries, where the overall space is smaller, but the mechanical/boiler needs are still relatively large.  The size of the room varies greatly based on still size, fermentation & mashing processes, and overall process decisions.

The physical size of equipment in the boiler room, as well as clearances for equipment need to be taken into consideration. The boiler itself is usually the largest piece of equipment and usually has the largest clearances, with at least one or all sides needing access, of generally 2’-3’ clearance. The sizes and clearances of the boiler and all equipment vary quite greatly and will need to be analyzed on a case by case basis as equipment is selected.

boiler room in the corner of a production space

inside a boiler room

Equipment in the Boiler room

Most distilleries will have the following equipment in the boiler room:

Very Likely:
-Steam Boiler
-Boiler Feedwater Tank
-Blow Down Separator

Somewhat likely:
-Domestic Water Heaters
-Instant Water Heaters

-Process Water Heaters
-Instant Water Heaters

-Chiller Ancillary Equipment
-Glycol Feed Tank
-Brine Storage Tank

-Air Compressor

Less Likely:

-Water Entry Filtration (i.e. Reverse Osmosis Filtration)
-Hot or Cold water storage tanks
-Heat Exchangers
-Expansion Tanks

The boiler is usually sometimes required to be in separate room, so it is most logical that much of its ancillary equipment, such as the feedwater tank and blowdown separator be near it. Not all equipment is necessarily located inside the boiler room, but for the convenience of having all the “back of house” equipment in one place, it is often a good idea. The boiler room can sometimes serve as a sort of utility room, and can also have some electrical equipment in it if need be. Boiler rooms are not supposed to be considered storage though, and should not have any combustible storage in them.

Building Heating, Ventilation, & Cooling (HVAC) is always located in a distillery boiler room, but can be. HVAC equipment that provides general heating and cooling for the building is often located outside, on the roof or adjacent to the building.

Most distilleries use a chiller to provide cooling to the still and fermenters. Chillers are usually outside, as they put off a significant amount of heat. They are usually on the roof or adjacent to the building. Depending on the chiller system, there are some pieces of ancillary equipment that goes inside, which can be in the boiler room.

Alternatives

Some small distilleries that are tight on space can use electric stills, but often still need some hot water needs for mashing. This is often done by using instant water heaters and storage tanks. There are many ways to bring heat to your still, but steam is the most common.

While chillers are often used for cooling, in certain climates (more dry usually), evaporative cooling methods can be used to provide cooling to stills and fermenters. Evaporative coolers are located outside.

Additional Design Considerations

Since the walls are often built before the equipment is delivered to the building, we often design larger doorways to allow large pieces of equipment to be brought in to the room. This is often two 3’ wide double doors. This also allows easy removal/ replacement of equipment in the future when needs might change.

Who designs the boiler room?

A well-designed boiler room and distillery is the result of proper planning and an experienced, well-coordinated team. It involves proper selection of equipment to support your distillery process, usually with a knowledgeable mechanical engineer and architect. A mechanical engineer, when given the basic parameters of the process heating and cooling needs, will be able to resolve the technical aspects of the boiler room and equipment.

inside a boiler room that uses instant hot water heaters

 

boiler room plan example

 

Article by:

Matthew Taylor-Rennert

Dalkita Architecture & Construction