Programmable Thermostats and Boiler Controls Help Save Energy and Increase Comfort

Client: Manufacturer of Electrical Bus Duct Products
Location: Northeast Ohio, Canton, Stark County

Problem

A local manufacturer of electrical bus duct products for industrial locations had a sizable amount of office space, which they had been heating /cooling with older packaged roof-top units and three boiler systems. Their complaint was two fold.

First, the office employees were commonly uncomfortable with regard to temperature and were almost constantly setting the thermostats at one extreme or another.

Second, their older equipment (ancient by industry standards) was not efficient. In an energy management seminar that had been attended by company management it was learned that, though their equipment was old and not highly efficient in itself, there were other, less expensive options to allow them to save energy.

Solution

The energy management seminar had given them the first part of their energy management solution — the idea of installing programmable thermostats. These would help cut their energy bills by allowing the office temperatures to automatically be set to lower energy consumption settings in the evening and night when no employees were in the building. These thermostats were also lockable which would quickly solve the problem of unwanted set-point changes by office staff.

The second part of the solution involved the installation of mechanical boiler reset controls. Thus far the company’s three boilers had run full throttle regardless of what the temperature was outside (in other words, regardless of how much they were needed). On fall, spring, and mild winter days their boilers would continue to run at 100% capacity. The new mechanical reset controls now allow the boilers to run at partial capacity — something less than 100% depending upon the amount of heating required.

Equipment

• Customer’s existing packaged heating/cooling roof-top units and three boilers.
• Mechanical boiler reset controls.
• New White Rodgers programmable thermostats.