Facilities Engineering

Electrical Engineering

New technology can bring amazing benefits to your school, institution or buildings, but you have to be able to integrate it with your existing structure and understand the way it will be used in the future. We don’t just plan and install the equipment; we help you optimize your investment.

Clients need to remain up and running even when the power supply is unstable, so we’ve created backup systems for entire campuses, core IT, data rooms and critical facilities including healthcare and clean manufacturing. For clean rooms, we can install lighting that is as bright as you require. We’ll help you understand how your power requirements will evolve, and design systems that expand as you grow.

New lighting technologies can significantly reduce energy and maintenance costs, like sensors for daylight harvesting, and centralized controls that you can manage over the Internet to ensure there is adequate lighting without wasting power.

• Reliable power distribution
• Power distribution modification
• Medium and low voltage design
• Lighting systems and data systems
• Specialty lighting for auditoriums and museums
• Controls to manage fire and life safety systems
• Consistent power for healthcare and other critical delivery facilities
• Emergency power systems
• Daylighting and daylight harvesting
• Integrated IT systems including networking infrastructure

Utility Generation & Distribution

No matter what happens with fuel cost fluctuation, the lights and heat have to stay on, so you can keep producing for your customers. We’re here to help lower your carbon footprint and approach carbon neutrality while increasing capacity. We provide important long-term links to overall campus growth plans, with an eye toward fuel and regulatory flexibility. Your future capacity is always top-of-mind, as well as the long-term reliability of your facilities, the highest efficiency possible and compliance.

• Utility infrastructure plans
• Complete project design, commissioning and startup expertise

Structural Engineering

Starting with the initial project concept, we work with the client and other design team members to develop a structural system that is economical while still offering access and operational efficiency. We evaluate the load requirements for equipment and operation, along with environmental loads, required to code, to choose the best construction materials, and layouts for the project. We can be on-site to observe existing conditions, and discuss structural options to ensure the final design meets the needs of the client and is structurally sound.

• Structural evaluations and reports
• Construction inspections
• Retrofit/repairs to existing structures
• 3D Building information modeling (BIM)
• Building design
• Equipment supports and platforms
• Pipe racks and pipe bridges
• Conveyor supports
• Tank farms
• Tank supports and foundations
• Deep foundation design
• Skim pits
• Cranes and monorails
• Cooling tower basins
• Truck and rail loading/unloading

Controls Design

KFI offers the unique combination of a control system integrator embedded in a full-service engineering firm. From a project’s conceptual stage to its final turnover, our controls engineers work in a multi-disciplinary team with our mechanical, electrical, and commissioning engineers. As a result, the control system is an integral part of the entire design, as opposed to one or more proprietary systems introduced after the design is complete.

As an independent control systems integrator, we work free from commercial relationships with vendors of equipment, hardware, or software. Therefore, we can recommend and implement best-of-breed solutions which are tailored to each client’s needs. Our automation group are experts in the application of both DDC and PLC control technologies for buildings ranging from an elementary education building to central plants serving large institutional campuses.

We can integrate the installation requirements of the control system with the main electrical and mechanical construction documents. The result is competitive pricing, a reduction in the number of subcontractors, and accelerated construction schedules. Control panels and field devices can also be competitively bid, along with other mechanical and electrical equipment needed for the project. Best pricing is assured for this major part of the project budget.

We implement nonproprietary, open architecture technologies, giving our clients a choice of service and support providers. Our goal is to earn repeat business by exceeding client expectations on every project. With that approach, we have built successful partnerships with several key clients which have now lasted over 20 years.

Expertise:

Fire Protection Engineering

Our experienced fire protection engineers and NICET-certified design technicians are capable of complete fire protection systems design. We work with our clients to provide cost-effective and innovative systems for property protection and life safety. Using the latest technology, our fire protection engineers and designers work on projects of all types and sizes, including offices, education, manufacturing, data centers, aircraft hangars, storage, flammable and combustible liquids storage and handling facilities, industrial, and residential and military properties to ensure that all fire protection challenges are met.

Our extensive experience allows us to bring innovative ideas and practical solutions to complex problems for a variety of fire protection areas including, fire pumps, standpipes, fire water tanks, deluge, foam, inert gas, clean agent suppression systems, fire alarm and detection and fire code consulting. We adapt our designs to new technologies and the intricacies of each specific project to ensure the design not only meets applicable codes but is cost-effective and aesthetically pleasing. In addition, performance-based design solutions are offered where prescriptive codes and standards don’t provide adequate or appropriate protection.

For building owners and developers, we offer services ranging from observations of fire protection systems before purchasing or selling buildings and facilities to seminars and webinars on inspection, testing, and maintenance of fire protection systems.

From initial water supply testing to final project closeout, KFI provides complete fire protection design support that exceeds expectations.

• Water supply testing and analysis
• Fire sprinkler system design
• Special hazard suppression system design
• Fire and building code review and analysis
• Fire alarm design
• Mass notification/voice evacuation (emergency communication systems) design
• Third party plan review
• Fire protection engineer of record for design/build opportunities
• Technical report writing
• Fire and life safety performance-based design and analysis
• Liaison between clients and fire code officials
• Flammable and combustible liquids analysis and protection
• Facility fire protection quality assurance and quality control
• Fire protection systems commissioning