Advanced Condensing Boilers Remedy Aging Heating System at Chicago Medical Facility

A medical center in Chicago required a quick and efficient remedy to nurse its aging and failing boiler heating system back to good health. The newest high-efficiency condensing boilers from Weil-McLain provided the medicine needed.

Larry Latas, system director for multiple medical facilities in Chicago, needed to upgrade the aging boiler at the 15,000-square foot Presence Health facility.

“We had several issues with controls, the boiler was leaking, and we had to place multiple services calls to keep it operating effectively,” Latas said. “We were exploring grant programs for energy savings projects, such as boiler replacement, and that’s when we were approached by Carl Wigginton.”

Wigginton, vice president of service at Murphy & Miller Inc., a Chicago-based HVAC mechanical services firm that performs heating maintenance at Presence Health.

“Presence had an old 1 million BTU atmospheric steel tube boiler that was only functioning at maybe 700,000 BTUs,” Wigginton said. “Additionally, it was leaking and was strictly an on/off boiler that was wasting energy.”

Latas’ wish list included installation of an energy-efficient system that offered Modbus communication so the facilities technician could remotely access the boiler through the building automation system, view the status and determine how the system was functioning. The Evergreen system is adaptable for most heating needs, including light commercial or large residential applications and for both single and multi-boiler installations.

“The old atmospheric boiler was piped in series with the system, and when it was running it was about 65-percent efficient, versus the Evergreen that is 95-percent efficient,” said Mike Gambill, commercial specialist at Weil-McLain, who helped manage the project. “Because they were continuing to flow water through the boiler when it was not firing, it essentially became a radiator that robbed energy from the system and sent it up the chimney.”

To improve heating efficiency, Wigginton and Gambill recommended piping two 399 Evergreen boilers primary-secondary so the boilers are hydraulically disconnected from the system when not operational.

Read more at: http://www.weil-mclain.com/news/presence-health

This Quick Read was submitted by Ryan Berlin, Managing Editor of Facility Maintenance Decisions, ryan.berlin@tradepressmedia.com.

Next

---

Read next on FacilitiesNet