As early as 2008 WH Demmons, Inc., started working with Sabrina Murphy the Executive Director at the Bath YMCA to help them reduce their energy usage and energy costs, and to help improve the comfort of the space. Yes, they normally are all related; comfort and improved energy costs! The misconception, that you cannot achieve one without the other.
The bottom line, since we completed the renovation of the HVAC system in 2015, the Y has been saving approximately $10,000 per month in operating costs, with a total renovation cost $505,000.00 this appears to have a simple ROI of 4.2 years, and with improved comfort and reduced maintenance costs.
This building has a total square footage of approximately 49,000 ft2, with 40,600 ft2 on the 1st floor and 8,400 ft2 on the 2nd floor. On the 1st floor there is a large gymnasium that includes basketball courts and a gymnastics area, racquetball courts, a therapy pool and hot tube area, a large pool area, a core area with locker rooms, mechanical spaces, storage, and offices, and the front area with offices, meeting rooms, and multipurpose rooms. The gymnasium, racquetball and large pool areas have floor to ceiling heights of approximately 26 feet, the therapy area has a floor to ceiling height of around 17 feet, the lobby area has some open ceiling areas, and most other areas have ceiling heights of around 9 feet.
The 2nd floor is made up of seating areas for the large pool, mezzanines, fitness and aerobics, and hallways and mechanical spaces.
The roofs are either EPDM black with approximately an R20, or standing seam metal.
What did we do?
We installed a new WH Demmons’ BAS manufactured, by Reliable Controls, on all HVAC systems with 3-D graphic interface and remote monitoring will allow the whole building to work together to save additional energy and improve the IAQ (indoor air quality). We are also including the installation of VFDs on major pumps and fan motors to further reduce energy cost and improve comfort.
This system will trend all data points in order to verify performance and to help in reducing energy costs. This system comes with a five (5) year warranty on all controls parts.
Separated the radiant floor office heating system from the airside heating, for improved control and comfort.
Replace pool roof top units (PDU-1) with one new Energy Recovery Unit by Efficient Air Systems and two (2) zones of control. That now creates a more comfortable viewing area and pool deck area, including air rotation technology
Replace one of the existing boilers with a high efficiency gas fired modulating condensing boiler, and to connect the other remaining boiler to gas. The high efficiency modulating condensing boiler will allow us to re-set water temperature based on outside air temperature for an improved operating efficiency of greater than 25%.