Wellnest Fertility

New Ridge Engineering, PLLC, provided MEP Engineering and Construction Administration services for Wellnest Fertility's first location in Ogden, UT. This project transformed an existing office building into a full-service fertility clinic, including a cutting-edge IVF Laboratory. MEP systems were carefully designed within the constraints of the existing utility services to avoid costly upgrades. New ridge Engineering assisted the design and ownership team in developing standards for electrical, plumbing, and mechanical systems to be used on future projects, balancing functionality and cost to ensure the company's vision of providing affordable, high-quality fertility services remained.

Electrical Design |

The project included full demolition and redesign of the interior electrical distribution, providing a new main distribution panel serving mechanical equipment, lighting, and receptacle loads. A new 50k W emergency generator was designed to support life safety and emergency branch circuits, including critical loads for laboratory and procedure rooms. The electrical design scope included dedicated and specialty receptacles coordinated with IVF laboratory equipment, a full lighting redesign with indirect lighting in patient areas, and the implementation of lighting control sequences, occupancy sensing, and plug load controls to meet code requirements. Design completed in accordance with the 2020 NEC, 2021 IECC, and 2010 FGI Guidelines.

Plumbing Design |

For the plumbing scope of this project, the existing domestic and sanitary systems were modified to serve the new IVF floor plan. The existing 1" domestic water service was demolished back to the utility meter and upsized to 2" to accommodate the increased fixture load. Flush tank-type water closets were used to minimize the peak domestic load. An existing low-pressure natural gas service was utilized for domestic and hydronic water heating. A blended tri-gas (6% carbon dioxide, 5% oxygen, 89% nitrogen) manifold was also added, along with supply piping to serve the IVF incubators.

Mechanical Design |

New Ridge Engineering assisted Wellnest Fertility in their HVAC system design at their facility to maintain high air quality standards in their embryology laboratories and procedure rooms, where embryos are exposed to the ambient environment while keeping costs low to ensure affordable care for patients. IVF Laboratories rely on HVAC systems to protect developing human embryos from harmful airborne contaminants, including VOCs, which are directly damaging to the DNA of embryos. Airborne particle levels, room temperature, humidity, space pressurization, and gas-phase contaminant levels are all tightly controlled to ensure the IVF laboratory has the optimal environment for embryo growth.