CASE STUDIESCustom HVAC Configurations for Custom Spaces

The Covenant School was founded 30 years ago in Charlottesville, Virginia. The lower school, for students in pre-K through 6th grade, is located in a 65,000-square foot historic brick building dating back to 1935. With almost 300 students, faculty and staff members, the school needs to operate seamlessly. When an old boiler system became what board member Jay Taggart called a “ticking time-bomb,” the school knew a new heating system was needed. Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) from Mitsubishi Electric served as the ultimate answer to that need, providing zone control, air filtration and the added bonus of cooling. 

The Burton Center for Arts & Technology (BCAT) serves almost 800 high school students on its Salem, Virginia, campus. Students take classes on a wide variety of topics—including automotive technology, computer information technology, mechatronics, culinary arts, performing arts and cosmetology. When the school’s old HVAC systems needed replacing, the district’s attention turned toward technologies that could ensure comfort and efficiency. For the school’s front building—20,000 square feet of offices and classrooms—that meant Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) from Mitsubishi Electric.

Aljoya is one of eight senior communities owned and operated by Era Living, LLC., a private Seattle-based company founded in 1987 by Eli and Rebecca Almo. A respected and recognized leader in senior living throughout the Puget Sound region, Era Living is dedicated to providing innovative housing, engaging programs and a variety of service choices for seniors. After studying the field of available HVAC systems, the Era Living design team concluded that the Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) technology from Mitsubishi Electric would be the most energy-efficient and cost-effective system for Aljoya’s needs. Wagner liked the Mitsubishi Electric VRF system’s unique ability to transfer heat within a building controlled by variable capacity heat pumps. He knew this would lead to considerable savings in energy costs.

As a well-known HVAC contractor in Michigan’s Ann Arbor region, Andy Bobo, co-owner, CMR Mechanical, Dexter, always provides his customers with effective solutions to efficiently cool and heat their homes. However, when it came to installing a cooling and heating system in his vacation home called AshKay Island—a 100 percent off-grid, 1,700-square-foot cottage located on an eight-acre island off Iron Mill Pond in Manchester, Michigan—Bobo faced a new, yet exciting challenge. He needed to find an energy-efficient system that could cool the entire house during the summer but also serve as a backup heat source during Michigan’s subzero winter season. Knowing how efficient and flexible it could be, Bobo selected Zoned Comfort Solutions™ from Mitsubishi Electric to do the job.

Located 25 miles southwest of downtown Portland, Ore., on 35 lush acres in Willamette Valley wine country, the Allison Inn and Spa (Allison) is the only member of Preferred Hotels® & Resorts in the state of Oregon and one of only 22 hotels in the world with LEED® Gold certification, according to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Thanks to judicious planning for sustainability, Allison scored 49 points (out of a possible 69) for New Construction. A Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) zoning system from Mitsubishi Electric was selected because it provides superior efficiency compared to typical hospitality HVAC systems.

Opened in January 2004, Brentwood is a 35,100-square-foot, 29-unit Residential Care Apartment Complex (RCAC) located in Rice Lake, Wisconsin (pop. 8,500). Founded in 1864 on the site of a Menomonie Indian village and a wild rice bed, Rice Lake is the largest primarily retail community between Eau Claire (60 miles south), Superior/Duluth (100 miles north), and Minneapolis/St. Paul (100 miles west). Created and owned by David and Diana Barta (Brentwood Senior Communities, LLC), Brentwood may be the only assisted living facility in the state with a concrete storm shelter (8-inch-thick walls for the occasional tornado) which also serves as the facility chapel. Equipment from Mitsubishi Electric was installed to provide reliable comfort.

The Hollis Montessori School (Hollis Montessori), Hollis, New Hampshire, is the first independent school in the country to receive Passive House certification. This certification denotes the school’s extreme energy efficiency and means the facility has met rigorous energy-saving standards. The certification also hints at the thoughtful education taking place inside the classroom walls. For example, students are welcome to interact with the facility’s various energy-saving systems. Students have been particularly interested in the equipment on the walls that keeps their classrooms comfortable and their school compliant with Passive House standards. That equipment is part of a Hyper-Heating INVERTER™ (H2i®) system from Mitsubishi Electric.

At Fairmont State University, Fairmont, West Virginia, teaching and learning matters and students are first priority. When the only on-campus, apartment-living complex—The College Park apartments—approached the end of its lifespan, the need for new student housing became apparent. After several years of research, planning and design, the University Terrace project took shape in 2015 and was completed in October 2016. The new 110,000-square-foot facility is comprised of two four-story buildings and one three-story building housing a total of 345 students. When it came to selecting efficient mechanical systems for the project, the university looked at a Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) system from Mitsubishi Electric.

Kansas’ Dodge City Unified School District provides education to 7,000 students. As the district’s ten schools have gotten older and their noisy HVAC systems have impacted the students’ classroom experience, the district has set out to renovate the schools with sustainable HVAC technology. So far, three schools have been renovated; two schools have paired Water-source Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) from Mitsubishi Electric with geothermal technology. The resultant whisper-quiet operation provides these schools’ students with a better educational experience, while the energy efficiency provides the district with reduced utility bills.

Recognized around the world, the name needs little introduction. In 1996, at age 25 Lance Armstrong exploded onto the world stage winning a world championship, the Tour de Pont and multiple Tour de France stages. Only months following these victories, he was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer which spread to his abdomen, lungs and brain. In early 1997 he founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) to improve the lives of the 28 million people around the globe living with cancer. Six years later, in 2003 LIVESTRONG.org was launched as an online resource for cancer survivors.