Results
Mixed Use Corporate Headquarters & Network Server Rooms
The Risk Management Solutions facility is a three-story building with an area of about 150,000 square feet. The facility is both their corporate headquarters as well as where their critical server rooms to power their internal computers operations for their worldwide operations.
This project was performed to find cost-effective ways to reduce the high energy costs at the Risk Management Solutions building in Newark, CA. The goal of the study was to find a way to reduce this significantly while holding the project’s payback to under two years.
The Comfort International Efficient Energy Management Systems (EEMS) study found that the building has good quality mechanical equipment, and that its annual energy usage can be cost-effectively reduced by $151,115, for a simple payback of 1.6 years.
The EEMS study found that the HVAC system, which is overly generously sized for the job, is using far more energy than necessary. By optimizing the system, "right-sizing" where necessary, implementing a few mechanical enhancements, and revising control strategy, utility costs can be cut dramatically and the comfort improved.
The building control system was upgraded to a new nonproprietary native BACnet systems that optimized the entire system to work collaboratively. Variable speed drives were used throughout the system from the chilled water, hot water, supply & return fans which provided precise control ability to match the loads of the building without any wasted energy. Unique control logic has enabled this building to maintain comfort with unheard of low fan power. As an example it is common to see the system fully satisfying all of the zones at outside air temperatures up to the low eighties yet only use static pressures from .10” to .25” of water column. By reducing the amount of air down to the zone level we have enabled all of the other separate components of the HVAC system to work together as a logical and efficient team. The Network server rooms were also optimized in the same manner with additional improvements in their hot/cold aisle configurations to maximize economizer operations.
In addition to cost savings, the upgrade will reduce CO2 (greenhouse gas) emissions by about 1,200,000 pounds every year. The actual results measured at the utility meter level have exceeded our EEMS target goals. The building is saving over $201,000 per year and the project received a rebate from the utility of $121,700!
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