Historic building gets new life
Detroit's newly remodeled national landmark building, the Cadillac Palace, is now home to many of Michigan's state agencies, after the addition of packaged, self-contained, water-cooled air-conditioning units with variable air volume (VAV) conditioned air distribution. Originally completed in 1923, the former General Motors building is 1.2 million sq. ft. and had been using 1,860 window air conditioners and hundreds of spot cooling systems to cool the building. Model SCWB water-cooled, self-contained units were chosen, rated at 65 tons each. The building design called for 68 units, with four on each of the 15 floors with an additional six units serving the Annex wing. The duct system is a dual-duct design, with ventilation air distributed through the building, by approximately 1,400 VariTrane VAV terminal boxes. The Tracer Summit system was added to control the self-contained cooling units and the air-distribution system.
Trane.
Reader Service No. 211
Calculated savings
On-line program, the Energy-Calc, allows building owners to estimate potential dollars saved by using gas humidification rather than electric works. The program asks the user to select items from different pull-down menus and then instantly calculates annual energy savings.
DriSteem.
Reader Service No. 209
Old is new again
Digital version of the original Round thermostat (Model T8775) adds a back light and large-number readout screen. Subtle clicks mark each one-degree twist of the cover ring, and on-demand backlighting lights up the display when the user twists the cover ring or presses the readout symbol. The Digital Round comes in heat-only and heat/cool versions with fan output, providing compatibility with 24-volt gas/oil and electric heat and cool systems, single-stage heat pumps, hydronic heating and electric heating. Both versions provide set-point retention during power failures.
Honeywell.
Reader Service No. 208
Gym breathes fresh air
Niles North High School in Skokie, Ill., is nearly 40 years old, but it has become the school of the future with a new $110 million, three-phase renovation that included the installation of 1,500 linear ft. of Comfort-Flow fabric duct. The new duct work was installed in the school's 40,000-sq.-ft. gymnasium, which houses a dividable gymnastics room, wrestling room, and a main gym with two balconies that are regularly partitioned off. The new fabric duct will allow for 15% of the total air flow through its factory-engineered fabric, limiting dust buildup, while the other 85% of airflow will be dispersed through two linear mesh vents that run the entire length of the duct.
DuctSox.
Reader Service No. 210
