Six New York Commercial Buildings Employ OptimumHVAC Solution

Optimum Energy, LLC, provider of heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) software solutions that set a new standard in energy efficiency, today announced that its OptimumHVAC™ solution is being employed in six New York State commercial facilities, including the 1271 Avenue of the Americas building in New York City; a GE Healthcare manufacturing facility in Troy; and Westfield Group’s Sunrise shopping center in Massapequa.

Collectively, these six New York installations are expected to reduce HVAC energy consumption by more than 9.9 million kWh annually, resulting in:

• operating cost savings of more than $2 million per year;
• water savings of more than 4 million gallons per year; and
• greenhouse gas emission savings of more than 16 million pounds per year.

Optimum Energy also is conducting site assessments of five Suffolk County municipal buildings, including a power plant that serves several buildings, an office tower, two court complexes, and the medical examiner’s building. Preliminary calculations predict implementation of OptimumHVAC in these facilities may result in greater than 2 million kWh of energy savings annually for Suffolk County.

“New York is leading the charge to more sustainable buildings with innovative programs such as New York City’s benchmarking, audit and retro-commissioning initiatives,” said Nathan Rothman, founder and CEO of Optimum Energy. “As a result of those initiatives, our New York customers are very aware of the actual performance of their buildings. Implementing next-generation solutions such as OptimumHVAC not only provides for significant benchmark improvements, it also makes solid business sense when you consider the cost savings. That is driving strong interest from our customers who won’t accept the status quo when it comes to energy-efficient HVAC.”

Most projects are eligible to receive New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) or Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) incentives, totaling more than $2.6 million. These financial incentive programs combine with the region’s relatively high cost of power to provide a compelling return on investment. The average simple payback for these projects, which includes the cost of OptimumHVAC plus any hardware upgrades, less incentives, is just over two years.

OptimumHVAC is ideal for New York commercial facilities equipped with centrifugal chilled water and/or variable air volume air handling HVAC systems due to the high percentage of partial-load operation. On average, buildings in New York only need to operate HVAC equipment between 90 and 100 percent of capacity less than three percent per year. The rest of the time it’s possible to operate HVAC system equipment (including chillers, pumps and fans) at variable (slower) speeds to save energy and maintain a comfortable environment. OptimumHVAC’s software does just that by automatically calculating the most energy-efficient sequencing of HVAC system equipment based on real-time building loads, reducing energy use by up to 60 percent.

OptimumHVAC makes it easy to benchmark HVAC energy performance and ensure energy reductions are sustained month after month with a web-based service that allows building operators to continuously measure, verify and manage plant performance.

Source: http://www.optimumenergyhvac.com/