Boilers Improve Comfort, Efficiency and Reduce Maintenance for Co-op: Twenty-year energy savings of $4.5 million expected

摘要

In 1962, Chatham Park Village Cooperative (CPVC) in Chicago, a not-for-profit housing complex owned and operated by its members, converted a 1930s heating system that disbursed steam through underground tunnels to natural-gas boilers and commercial water heaters. The move to individual boilers was a significant upgrade and measurable improvement for the time. By 2013, however, the original 1962 boilers were operating at only about 70-percent efficiency. Even boilers installed just a few years earlier could not maintain better than 82-percent efficiency. In addition to energy waste, CPVC was facing exceedingly high energy costs. DRF Trusted Property Solutions - Plainfield, III.-based provider of hot-water-heater and other plumbing services - and Metropolitan Industries Inc. - Romeoville, Ill.-based manufacturer of custom mechanical/HVAC solutions, specialty controls, and pumping packages - collaborated on an upgrade of CPVC's space- and water-heating systems. Two LAARS NeoTherm condensing, hydronic boilers, four circulator pumps, and, depending on the size of the building, one or two indirect water heaters were installed in each of the 63 buildings' mechanical room.