The objective was to replace outdated equipment with high efficiency, reliable units for comfort cooling for customers and staff; centralize control of system, and provide remote access. The old heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system also had outdated controls. Dealership facility must be a comfortable and welcoming company, so it consulted their mechanical contractor, Ken Castro of Tri-C Sheetmetal, who recommended Carrier replacement units based on his previous experience with Carrier products.
Major Decision Drivers
The decision drivers involved the focus upon lower energy costs for HVAC system as demonstrated by Commercial Invest software; more reliable comfort cooling; utility rebate; ability to view and control HVAC system from smartphone.
Solution and Equipment used
Motorcars Toyota selected Refrigeration Sales Corporation (RSC) to help them choose replacement units that are highly efficient, reliable, with controls that maximized efficiency. RSC provided modeling using Carrier Commercial Invest Rooftop Payback Analyzer to demonstrate the cooling cost savings of the Carrier 48LC WeatherExpert rooftop unit. RSC also recommended the Carrier Connect Wi-Fi-enabled thermostat, which allows the management to view and adjust the HVAC system via smartphone or tablet from any Wi-Fi-enabled location.
48LC WeatherExpert 3-23 Ton Packaged rooftop units is most efficient commercial packaged rooftop that provides gas heating and electric cooling, and have some of the industry’s highest IEER’s available. The multi stage cooling compressor logic allows for added comfort, energy savings and humidity control. Units are pre-wired and pre-charged with environmentally sound Puron (R-410A) refrigerant at the factory.
Performance features: The 3 to 23 ton models have standard cooling operation up to 52°C, and down to -12°C for 3-5 ton models, or down to 4°C for 6-23 ton models, which have three-stage cooling capacity control. 3 to 5 ton models have cooling operation down to -18°C with ComfortLink controls. The performance exceeds ASHRAE 90.1 and Energy Star efficiency levels, as well as Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE) criteria and upto 17.5 SEER and 20.8 IEER.
Carrier Connect Wi-Fi-enabled thermostat catered to the need of management to have remote access to the HVAC system. The thermostat controls both fan speed and humidity, has seven-day scheduling, and provides password-protected access to the system, so that no unauthorized changes can be made.
Matt Gile, President of Motorcars Toyota, said, “The Connect thermostat is easy to use and makes it possible to have different areas of the dealership on different HVAC schedules, according to their needs. We have the system respond when everyone leaves a given area, so we are not wasting energy on empty departments.”
Result
The high-efficiency 48LC WeatherExpert rooftop units won Motorcars Toyota a $4,472.00 energy rebate, offsetting their first costs. The low cost of cooling demonstrated by the 48LC units in the Commercial Invest modeling also led the company to select the same units for two of their other facilities.
Project Summary
Location: Motorcars Toyota, Ohio.
Project Type: Retrofit Installation.
Equipment: 11 Carrier 48LC Weather
Expert rooftop units.
Controls: Carrier Connect Wi-Fienabled thermostats.
Total Cooling Tons: 243.
