AFE January/February 2012 : Page 39

ADVERTORIAL Boarding School Expels Old District Mechanical System illiston Northampton School, in Easthampton, MA, has embarked on a lengthy, multi-phase, cross-campus crusade to change buildings from an antiquated central steam heat system to high efﬁ ciency, single-structure hydronic equipment. When complete, seven of the largest buildings across the campus will have new mechanical compo-nents or entirely new systems. New, modular iWorx controls will be the brains of each system. “Careful data tracking made it possible for us to see an immediate reduction of energy costs for build-ings retroﬁ tted in the ﬁ rst phase, ” said Jeff Tannatt, director of physical plant at Williston. Buildings that were completed in the ﬁ rst phase of the project aver-aged 30% to 40% savings in energy consumption over years before, even with severe winter conditions. Less tangible: higher comfort and controllability. It’s clear today that Williston’s managers aren’t regret-ting having taken the plunge into a rather daunting project. “We had to ask ourselves, if we could save funds on that scale with just a few renovations, what would be possible with a campus-wide retroﬁ t project?” recalled Tannatt. The school has 50 heated buildings on campus. Lead by Tannatt, the school’s skilled maintenance crew has performed much of the work (now in phase two of the three-phase project), in-cluding instal-lation of the iWorx W controls, piping, and installation of many system components. IN THE BEGINNING The “greening” revolution that swept through Williston began in 2007 , with what appeared to be a simple system swap-out of mechanical systems for two small dormitories. Quick boiler changes and upgraded water distribution to single-pipe Taco Load Match systems inspired the now school-wide transformation. CAMPUS-WIDE CRUSADE Four of the largest buildings on the 115-acre campus were connected to the 60 year-old steam system. The school’s management team, along with Taco’s Eastern Commercial Regional Manager, Jeff Pitcairn, de-veloped the phased plan to update the HVAC systems. The goal: high efﬁ ciency and controllability. By the end of the project, the cen-tral steam plant, found in the ba base-ment of the library, will be ofﬂ ine. in iWORX CONTROLS As the work progresses, the scho school simply adds new control module modules to the iWorx platform. The iWor iWorx system is an easily-scalable easily-scalable, open-protocol building man-agement, monitoring and control system. “What makes iWorx different from other systems is that you don’t need special tools, software or computers to do the installation or commission-ing, ” said Tannatt. Once wired, pro-grams are resident in the controller. By manipulating control parameters for the speciﬁ c HVAC equipment on the LCI (Local Control Interface), engineering time is eliminated, and installation costs drop signiﬁ cantly. “Another thing that made iWorx at-tractive was the ability to control all the buildings from anywhere with an Internet connection, ” added Tannatt. “We can change the temperature, view fuel consumption, or set timers from any location on campus. ” Taco’s iWorx system installs so quickly and easily that hiring a con-trols company wasn’t necessary. The capable Williston maintenance crew was able to handle the installation without any problems. “It’s been a long road to energy efﬁ ciency already, but we see a very bright light at the end of the tunnel now, ” he concluded. Q For more information, contact Jeff Pitcairn, Taco, Inc. 401.942-8000 • jefpit@taco-hvac.com www.taco-hvac.com July | August 2011 Q  Facilities Engineering Journal Q  www.AFE.org 39