Evco Mechanical has been providing mechanical services at Parkview Towers for over 15 years. A long standing Evco customer, Parkview Towers has relied on Evco Mechanical for installations, repairs, maintenance and design-build planning advice to keep its infrastructure capable and ready to support the building’s occupants. Recently, Evco Mechanical was hired to perform the complete renovation of the central plant at Parkview Towers. Equipment and infrastructure that had aged beyond its expected service life precipitated this massive renovation. The project, however, was ultimately enabled by the superior energy efficiency available from modern system designs and equipment. Funded in part by the PSE&G Multi-family energy efficiency program and other federal and state energy grants, the renovation of the Parkview Towers central plant is poised to deliver vast improvements in building energy efficiency and infrastructure reliability.

What was Involved?

The central plant renovation at Parkview Towers is an excellent example of system renovations performed by Evco Mechanical. The existing plant equipment included steam boilers, steam absorption chillers, heat exchangers for production of heat and domestic hot water and numerous pumps, control valves and associated devices. The replacement of this critical equipment requires careful planning to reduce any inconveniences to the building occupants, and to ensure that all the elements are properly selected and installed to work together reliably. Evco specifically excels at this planning stage to reduce occupant discomfort and to help translate engineering design into successful practice. The execution of such well-laid plans is also Evco’s forte.

Upgrading the building’s cooling systems was one such example of careful planning needed to make the project a success. The selection and layout of new cooling equipment at Parkview required careful considerations for the limited electrical power available at the building; the electrical grid at the building was not able to support electrically powered chillers that might be found elsewhere in similarly sized buildings. Instead, the new system design, engineered by SparHawk Group, leveraged gas-engine driven chillers that not only made chilled water but also contributed to the production of domestic hot water! The cogenerating gas-driven chillers, manufactured by Tecogen Inc, are capable of 95% or more fuel efficiency by generating domestic hot water as a by-product of making air conditioning. Eliminating the steam driven absorption chillers also meant that new boilers could be installed to directly produce heating hot water. SparHawk group selected Lochinvar Crest boilers, which are high-efficiency condensing boilers, to produce heating hot water for the new Parkview Towers central plant.

Not Just the Central Plant

In addition to renovating the central plant equipment, Evco Mechanical also upgraded the central plant building automation system (BAS) to a custom-designed Delta Controls BAS. The new BAS was designed to simplify plant operations for the building engineer and includes a full graphics interface, web-based access via mobile device skins or browser, and automated alerts over text, email and central-station phone-calls. As a component of the BAS renovation, Evco also deployed an Exception-6 boiler monitoring system that qualifies as a Remote-Boiler-Monitoring-System (RBMS) by the New Jersey Department of Labor Bureau of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Compliance (NJ-DOL BBPVC).

For Evco, the Relationship Matters

Continuing a relationship that already spans over a decade, Evco Mechanical was proud to help Parkview Towers execute this major renovation. As with all such projects, Evco strives to help buildings plan out and execute central plant renovations that are both immediately successful and effective over the long-term.