LMU Chiller Plant Upgrade Good for Environment, Great for Bottom Line

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LOBOS, Enerliance’s intelligence platform, combined with Trane equipment, ensures university’s HVAC system runs at maxium efficiency.

Irvine, Calif. (PRWEB) November 19, 2013 — Enerliance and Trane recently collaborated with Loyola Marymount University (LMU) to upgrade its outdated chiller plant and save the college a projected $629,000 in annual energy costs, while making a positive contribution to the environment—both in the classroom and in the world.

Trane, a leading global provider of indoor comfort solutions and services and a brand of Ingersoll Rand (NYSE: IR), was working with LMU to find the most cost-effective way to upgrade its nearly obsolete Upper Campus chiller plant. Replacing the chiller and the controls would make the HVAC system run more efficiently, but the resulting savings were not enough to offset the expense.
“LMU was already achieving such high levels of efficiency at the upper campus that it was difficult to find enough energy savings potential to justify the project,” said Adam Wittwer, Trane’s Los Angeles sales manager.

To make the numbers work, Trane brought the project to Enerliance. Trane knew that through optimizing the Upper Campus and University Hall chiller plants and air handling systems with Enerliance’s LOBOS software, an intelligent HVAC optimization platform, they would achieve the huge cost benefits necessary to justify the upgrades. A recently completed facilities upgrade at the Chandler Fashion Center in Chandler, Arizona, where LOBOS intelligence was combined with the ultra-efficient Trane chillers, cut the shopping center’s energy consumption by more than 1.8 million kWh to yield over $251,000 in annual energy cost savings.

When Trane added the LOBOS software to the LMU upgrade platform, the numbers changed dramatically, and the savings became significant enough to green-light the project. “When we combine the LOBOS software with our chillers and controls, that’s where the power is,” said Trane Account Manager Omar Chamma. “LOBOS is a proven technology that works every time.”

LOBOS monitors and controls every energy-using device in the university’s HVAC system. By constantly making micro-adjustments, LOBOS balances the HVAC system for efficiency every minute of every day. The system maintains a consistently comfortable environment in every LMU building, from classrooms to laboratories, to dormitories and offices, while using energy as efficiently as possible. Because of the energy savings that LOBOS added to the project, Trane was able to predict, through their Performance Contracting program, a monthly savings for LMU of more than $52,000.

“We need our students, faculty and staff to be comfortable,” said LMU Central Plant Engineer Doug Paterson, “but we need to conserve energy as well. With the implementation of the LOBOS optimization software integrating with our existing EMS HVAC control platforms, we anticipate HVAC energy savings up to 20 percent. LOBOS allows us to fine tune individual control points to be more or less aggressive in saving energy or by providing more cooling as needed.”

Thanks to the collaboration between Enerliance and Trane, the multi-million dollar chiller plant upgrade will pay for itself in just a few short years in the form of realized energy savings. Without LOBOS, the project would not have been funded and the university would not have benefited from the savings.

"The combined benefits of Trane and Enerliance products have allowed LMU to project unprecedented HVAC energy savings in the coming years,” said Paterson. “These savings, combined with the environmental gain, make this project a win for everyone."

“The LMU project is the most recent collaborative effort between Trane and Enerliance,” said Enerliance CEO Scot Duncan. “It is an excellent example of the great things that can happen when LOBOS HVAC intelligence joins forces with an industry leader like Trane to support the upgrade efforts of building owners andmake efficiency a profitable, sustainable endeavor without compromising the comfort of the occupants.”

About Enerliance: Enerliance is the company behind LOBOS, an intelligent optimization system for large-scale air conditioning systems that offers improved comfort, energy-efficiency and fully-automated demand response capability that materially improves bottom lines for building owners and occupants.

Currently, LOBOS systems are delivering more than 16-megawatts of fully automated demand response capability to the grid along with more than $3 million in annual energy savings. The core technologies behind the LOBOS platform are protected under patent number US 7,890,215 B2.

LOBOS is built to be deployed by energy solutions providers, mechanical contractors, building automation contractors, controls manufacturers, utilities and other LOBOS-certified partners in buildings across the country. www.enerliance.com

About Trane: Trane solutions optimize indoor environments with a broad portfolio of energy-efficient heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems, building and contracting services, parts support and advanced controls. For more information please visit trane.com.