Design — Electrical, HVAC, Plumbing & Fire | VASS Engineering Services LLP

In plain terms

Every building needs power, water, air and fire safety. Someone has to work out exactly how.

That is what design engineering is. Before anything gets built, someone has to decide how big the cables need to be, where the pumps go, how much cooling the building needs, and how a fire would be detected and put out.

Get it wrong and you find out late — on site, with a contractor standing idle and a variation order in your hand. Our partners have spent a decade on site as well as at the drawing board, so the design accounts for how it will actually be installed.

We work across four disciplines, and coordinate them together so services do not clash with each other or with the structure.

01

What we design

Four disciplines

01

Electrical

Everything that carries power — from the substation that feeds a site down to the sockets in a room. This is our largest area of work.

Power transformer and steel gantry structures in an air-insulated substation bay. — Power transformer bay at an air-insulated substation

Substations from 11 kV up to 220 kV
Substation layout and equipment sizing
Earthing and lightning protection
Protection, metering and relay settings
Cable sizing, routing and schedules
Low-voltage distribution for homes, offices and factories
Motor control for industrial plant
Solar PV and power plant electrical
Fire alarm, CCTV, data and access control
Standby power — generators and UPS

Two kinds of substation. An AIS substation sits out in the open air and needs land. A GIS substation is sealed and compact, so it fits where land is expensive — which is why data centres and city sites use them. We design both.

Electrical design in detail →

02

HVAC

Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning — keeping a space at the right temperature and properly ventilated, without wasting energy.

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Rooftop chiller plant and air-handling units with insulated ducting, in clean daylight

Chillers, air handling units and cooling towers
Ducting, insulation and exhaust systems
Ventilation for basements and plant rooms
Split, VRV and VRF air-conditioning
Heat load calculation and equipment selection
Energy-efficiency compliance

Designed to ASHRAE, the National Building Code and ECBC — the energy conservation code that most large new buildings in India must meet.

HVAC design in detail →

03

Water & Sewerage

Formally called Public Health Engineering. Clean water in, waste water out, and rainwater dealt with — for a single building or a whole township.

Large-diameter pump house pipework with grated walkways. — Pump house pipework and walkways at a water installation

Water supply and plumbing inside buildings
Water distribution networks across a site
Sewage treatment plants
Water treatment and RO plants
Storm water drainage and sewer networks
Rainwater harvesting
Pumping stations and reservoirs

Designed to CPHEEO guidelines, the National Building Code and local authority norms, so approvals go through without rework.

Water & sewerage design in detail →

04

Fire Fighting

Detecting a fire early and putting it out — plus getting people safely out of the building while it happens.

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Fire-fighting pump room: red hydrant pipework, main and jockey pumps and sprinkler risers

Hydrant and sprinkler systems
Fire detection and alarm systems
Gas-based suppression for server and electrical rooms
Water mist systems
Passive fire protection
Public address and emergency communication
Tank farm fire protection

Designed for fire department approval — to the National Building Code, NFPA standards and local fire regulations.

Fire fighting design in detail →

02

What you receive

Deliverables

Design basis report and load calculations
Single line diagrams
Equipment sizing and technical specifications
Layout and general arrangement drawings
Cable schedules and routing drawings
Earthing and lightning protection drawings
Bills of quantity and tender documents
Vendor drawing review and approval
Coordinated services drawings across all disciplines
Site queries answered during construction
As-built drawings on completion
Pre-bid engineering support where needed

We can take a project from first concept, or pick up from an existing design and take it to construction issue. If you are still at the tender stage, we also provide pre-bid engineering support.