Saving money is usually a good thing. Saving $500,000 is a very good thing. That's what Star Precision, a metal fabricating company based in Frederick, Colorado, accomplished when it designed its new $6.2 million plant.
Development of the new plant started out predictably enough for the five-year-old company. However, when its consulting engineer delivered a conventional HVAC design that carried a $1-million price tag, convention went out the window. The company formed a new design team consisting of Mark Hayes, vice president of finance, Star Precision; John D'Agostino, mechanical engineer, AC/H Professionals, a Longmont, Colo.-based HVAC contracting firm; and Bradley Bakel, project manager, Construction Concepts, Inc., a Longmont-based general contractor.
Together, team members tracked down a solution that saved Star Precision a half-million dollars and delivered additional, unexpected benefits. "I admit that there were any number of people who questioned my veracity when we started out," says Hayes. "But, those folks have come around. The end result has been better than we could have imagined when we started."
The solution centered using fabric duct, which was lighter, faster to install and less expensive than the traditional round, spiral duct specified by the original consultant. Manufactured by Dubuque, Iowa-based DuctSox, the fabric ductwork eliminated an impediment to forklift mobility, reduced the need for secondary framing to accommodate the heavier roof load anticipated with metal duct, and provided better air dispersion and appearance than metal duct.
Machine tolerances and worker comfort were top considerations for the design team. Star Precision's former 36,000-sq.-ft. plant had little airflow from the eight ductless evaporative coolers, which simply blew conditioned air through the back wall. "Workers were either too cool or too hot because the conditioned air was either drafty or stratified from a poor exhaust design," says Hayes. Equally important was air dispersion around the facility's equipment, which had caused problems at the company's former location when temperature variances produced unpredictable machinery tolerances. "With any type of ductwork, we were concerned with uneven air dispersion around our manufacturing and fabricating equipment because temperature variations can change tolerances and affect quality control," explains Hayes.
The resulting HVAC design keeps the plant at a cool 78°F, even though heat generation by the plant's 30 metal forming and cutting machines (brakes, punch presses, laser cutters, water jet cutters and other machinery) often surpasses 120°F. In fact, since the plant's startup in June, 2002, Hayes says he has only noticed one complaint. "This summer was very hot in Colorado, with 100°F days, and I heard several employees say that the plant was too cold for them. The system works well, with energy costs even a bit lower than our expectations."
