Nevada County

Description:

Aircon Energy was selected as Nevada County’s Energy Services Company by Nevada County. The County wanted to a multi phase retrofit of its existing buildings that would provide much needed facility improvements and reduced energy consumption in a self funding package. Aircon worked with the County to develop a master plan that would balance facility needs with funding sources. The goal was to maximize State and Federal grants, Utility Rebates, State Loan programs and Energy savings in one comprehensive program.  Aircon was asked to perform energy efficiency services on the following buildings:  Courthouse, Government Center & County Jail; totaling more than $2.3 million in improvements.

The Courthouse phase of the program involved a redesign and replacement of the existing Central Mechanical Heating and Cooling plant. This included the replacement of a chilled water system that had served the building for over 50 years. To ensure that a State grant was captured Aircon had to deliver the project in a very tight timeframe. This meant that Aircon Energy technicians had to maneuver large pieces of mechanical equipment in and out of a very confined working environment with little room for error.

Nevada County and Aircon Energy worked together to develop a program that met the county’s technical, financial, and procurement requirements resulting in a comprehensive program that included:

• Installation of a high efficiency non-condensing boiler
• Replacement of the existing chiller with a high efficiency duel temp unit with ice storage capacity for future expansion.
• Installation of a new hot and chilled water pumping system for building comfort
• Removal of the existing domestic hot water system and installation of a title 24 compliant on-demand system
• Cooling tower retrofit that includes motor replacement and variable frequency drive technology
• Upgrades and enhancements to the county’s existing direct digital control (DDC) systems.