Ted Glasrud Associates (TGA) is a commercial and residential real estate development and property management firm with a wide variety of properties to manage. Because no two buildings are alike, the company and its maintenance team are continually challenged to optimize HVAC systems across a wide variety of building types.
Plymouth Tech Center is a multi-use building, owned and managed by TGA. The 53,000 square foot building had 25 rooftop units (RTUs) from a variety of manufacturers. The controls and systems were not integrated and did not communicate, which prevented service technicians from easily troubleshooting problems.
Located near Minneapolis, MN, the building had housed various tenants over the years but the HVAC equipment hadn’t been modified to meet the needs of new tenants such as medical device manufacturers. These tenants had high energy demands and were experiencing large utility bills due to unnecessary mechanical cooling. TGA needed a better way to manage the HVAC system, help their tenants reduce energy expenses, and minimize service time.
“Troubleshooting and maintaining roof-top units can be time-consuming. Every time I have to climb on top of a building it costs me money so I want to make sure that every trip is as quick and efficient as possible.”
Seamless integration was just the beginning
The 25 existing RTUs were a mix of brands, with about half dating from the 1980s. The standard economizer control equipment at that time was a “black box” actuator that didn’t allow performance monitoring. When the older actuator units needed replacement, Matt Hoeft of TGA sought a solution that would give him more visibility into the system and reduce the amount of time he spent troubleshooting equipment.
Ultimately, he chose JADETM economizers from Honeywell because of the highly visible LCD display and continuous system status updates. In addition, installation was a breeze, allowing him to easily replace the old analog economizer systems with the microprocessor-based JADE, regardless of the RTU’s manufacturer.
“JADE is as plug-and-play as they get — it’s really easy to install and it works with all the different RTUs we have.”
JADE economizer systems deliver results
TGA is now able to easily monitor and manage their economizers and increase the energy efficiency of the building. The RTUs with JADE economizers use ambient air and demand control ventilation to reduce the need for mechanical heating or cooling, and in some cases, help save tenants up to 40 percent in electrical expenses.
The display features of JADE give Hoeft and his team greater monitoring and troubleshooting abilities. Fault detection and diagnostics are communicated clearly through an intuitive interface to help keep the unit operating at top performance. Troubleshooting time is now greatly reduced as the JADE economizer makes energy-saving building ventilation easy.
The benefits of economizers
Increasing the efficiency of your buildings is one of the easiest ways to reduce energy costs, and often the necessary upgrades are easier than you think. JADE economizers provide controllable energy reduction. Designed to work with existing and future RTUs, they make your buildings more efficient without rebuilding your entire HVAC system.
Monitoring is another key part of reducing your energy costs. JADE gives users the system information they want, in a format they can understand. Your tenants will be able to see the bene ts of the system and the impact it will have on their energy costs and indoor air quality.
Ted Glasrud Associates used JADE to reduce costs and service times while creating a more efficient, better-controlled building.
FEATURED PRODUCTS
Honeywell W7220 Series
JADETM Economizer Controller
