Case Study

100 Cambridge Park Drive - Cambridge, MA

100 Cambridge Park Drive is a five story multi-tenant office building located adjacent to Rt. 2  in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near the Alewife MBTA Station.

The building's major mechanical systems include:

1. Minimize operating and energy expenses.
2. Track the buildings mechanical performance.
3. Maintain the integrity of the pneumatic control system for back-up control.
4. Install a Graphical Operator Interface.
5. Reduce the operator workload in the day-to-day operations of the HVAC system.

The first phase of this multi-phase project involved the installation of a Delta Controls Intelli-Sys Control System to replace the old EMS systems. Two space temperature sensors were installed per floor that transmit space temperatures to the Delta Intelli-Con Turbo Panel located on the 5th Floor.

The Delta Turbo Panel controls/monitors the following:

The Delta Turbo Panel is a multi-ported, memory enhanced, dual processor field panel. At 100 Cambridge Park Drive, the Turbo Panel connects to 125 Cambridge Park Drive via a proprietary 1,000,000 baud network, Intelli-Net.  This allows the operators to control the building from the maintenance office located at 125 Cambridge Park Drive and to share global information such as schedules, temperatures and setpoints.

Special software was written by R. L. Shields Associates, Inc. to accomplish several of the tasks designated as goals. Custom software included:

1. Demand Side Management Software - This software is used to calculate the electrical demand, consumption and projects demand based on a minute by minute calculation. This enables the computer and operator to make changes in operation to avoid setting demand peaks. At 125 Cambridge Park Drive, demand is approximately $10.00 per kilo watt in the winter months and approximately $27.00 per kilo watt in the summer months. A reduction in the peak kilowatts of 100 in the summer can result in a monthly savings of $2,700.00. This software also unloads the static pressure in the building while starting the chillers. This reduces the initial demand spike. To better understand Electric Demand, click here.
2. Building Performance Tracking Software - Software was written take the trended information and store it on the hard drive located on the PC in the Maintenance Office. This includes electrical demand and consumption information, temperature data and other items that the maintenance personnel thought was important and storing it in a database. This database has some custom software that allows for automatic creation of management reports using the standard spread sheet programs.
3. Sunrise/Sunset Time Calculation - This controls the parking lot and building exterior lighting based on Sunrise and Sunset. The eliminates the problems associated with power failures skewing the time clocks and provides for the adjustment to Daylight Savings Time and Daylight Standard Time.

As previously mentioned, the Delta Turbo Panel is connected to a color host PC. The host system features Delta's IGRAPHW software. This "state-of-the-art" software package provides the user with both text information as well as providing a graphical interface. This software is also installed on the mechanical staff's personal computers to be used for off-site, after hours, operating changes. This helps the management company resolve problems and avoid some of the after hours call-ins. The maintenance staff has the ability to view all data and graphics from their home computers as they would see from their on-site computers.

Phase 2 was installed in 1997 to control the exterior lighting using custom software the calculates the times of Sunrise and Sunset.

Future phases of this project will include automating the tenant Variable Air Volume (VAV) Boxes, adding DDC to the McQuay units, and adding Carbon Dioxide sensors to monitor indoor air quality.

What do the Operators say about the project?

"The Delta Controls system installed by R. L. Shields Associates made my life much easier.  I managed 3 buildings that had Delta systems in them.  The information and control that the system provided reduced dispatches and allowed us to correct potential problems before the tenants called us to complain.

When we needed adjustments to the programming, Bob was able to do this within minutes over the telephone, saving Spaulding & Slye thousands of dollars over the years in service calls and site visits."

John Rowan, M.C.L.P. - Building Technology Engineers, Inc. - Boston, MA

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