HVAC Retrofitting
Make your commercial HVAC system as energy efficient as possible with our retrofitting services.
When thinking about how their buildings consume energy, most of our clients immediately think of lighting, water heating, and plug loads as the major energy users. While these are all major energy users, the reality is for most commercial buildings in the United States that HVAC (cooling, heating, and ventilation) is the largest energy-user.
HVAC equipment in a typical commercial building is 44% of total energy consumption.
While HVAC is the largest energy-user, it also the largest opportunity for significant energy savings. With our unique TotalE Approach, let us help you capture those savings.
Why Should You Retrofit Your HVAC System?
The biggest driver for an HVAC retrofit is time. While most buildings are constructed with an estimated useful life of 40-100 years, typical HVAC systems have an estimated useful life that is much shorter. According to ASHRAE, the typical packaged rooftop unit (RTU) has a median estimated useful life of 15 years; many other similar pieces of equipment have an estimated useful life of 15-30 years. Over the life of a building, the HVAC equipment will typically be replaced at least twice.
The second biggest driver for retrofit is the opportunity for significant improvements in energy efficiency. Building Automation Systems have dramatically improved over the past 30 years; a building constructed with pneumatic controls and constant volume AHUs several years ago will realize significant improvements in operational performance with upgrades to Direct Digital Controls (DDC) and Variable Air Volume (VAV) systems.
What Are the Advantages of Retrofitting Your HVAC System?
HVAC retrofits offer many advantages, including lower energy costs. They also provide you with new ways to manage your HVAC system that weren’t yet available when your system was originally installed.
For example, your HVAC system may not have a programmable thermostat, but an HVAC retrofit can include that, allowing you to manage the heating and cooling in your building by breaking the system up into zones. This zone setup provides an opportunity for you and your colleagues to control and manage temperatures and airflow throughout the building.
Overall, an HVAC retrofit improves your system’s performance as well as your commercial HVAC energy efficiency.
How Does HVAC Retrofitting Fit Into the Helios TotalE Approach?
Commercial HVAC retrofitting fits into the second pillar of our TotalE™ Approach, energy efficiency. Helios will retrofit your HVAC system and install LED lighting systems in your building during this stage to reduce energy consumption levels. At this point in the process, we make your systems as energy-efficient as possible.
We also use our TotalE™ Approach to implement energy management systems in your facility. These systems help you monitor and control how your energy systems, such as HVAC and lighting, operate at any time. After we complete this entire process, your building uses much less energy to operate, and you have streamlined energy management processes and large amounts of cost savings. Once we do that, we bring in clean energy systems, such as solar panels and energy storage systems, to generate ‘right-sized; amounts of energy to meet your building’s newly reduced total load requirements.
Determining Whether You Need an HVAC Retrofit
How does our Team determine whether or not your commercial HVAC system needs to be retrofitted?
We examine your system and consider several different criteria. As an example, we identify if the current HVAC system meets the original design requirements for the facility in terms of humidity, pressurization, and temperature. We also assess how long the total unit and its components have been in operation. If you have an HVAC system with a 25-year-old outdoor unit, we replace that outdoor unit and retrofit the rest of the system to work in a compatible manner with that new unit.
Some retrofit criteria apply to how the HVAC system heats, cools, and ventilates specially designed rooms. For example, a hospital may retrofit to improve the airflow in its positive ventilation pressure rooms. Of course, you may also need a retrofit to meet certain compliance requirements as well.
At Helios, we assess all relevant criteria before we recommend a tailored HVAC solution.
Signs Your System Needs an HVAC Retrofit
Signs that your HVAC system needs a retrofit include the following:
- Your system fails to heat and cool the spaces in your facility. This can happen with an old system or an improperly installed HVAC system.
- Your HVAC system breaks down all the time.
- The system doesn’t deliver the set amounts of heat, cool air, and humidity to your building’s spaces.
- The system doesn’t meet compliance requirements needed for the space where it resides.
If you notice your system exhibits any of the problems, it needs an HVAC retrofit. If you reach out to Helios for your retrofit, we can also perform an energy audit and make your entire building more energy efficient.
Improve Your Commercial HVAC System With Helios
Our HVAC retrofits do more than just improve the air flow and air quality in your building. They contribute to your commercial building’s energy efficiency and lower your overall energy usage and consumption both immediately and in the long term.
At Helios, we view an HVAC retrofit as just one piece of a larger energy puzzle. We combine it with LED lighting and solar solutions to reduce your energy costs and usage so you have smarter energy processes and operations within your facility. Trust us to develop the right retrofitted HVAC system for your building’s operations.
If you’re ready to improve your commercial HVAC system and your building as a whole, reach out to Helios Energy™ today.
