The Village of Niles was interested in reducing energy bills to lower yearly operational costs at their Family Fitness Center. The Niles Family Fitness Center achieved energy efficiency savings by taking advantage of a SEDAC no-cost energy assessment and energy efficiency incentives.
Niles Family Fitness Center staff reached out to SEDAC for help in lowering its energy costs. SEDAC performed an energy assessment for the Family Fitness Center in 2008. One finding revealed that the pool dehumidification system ejected heat energy—a product of the dehumidification process—to the outdoors through an air-cooled condenser.
SEDAC recommended augmenting the dehumidification system with heat recovery capability. The heat recovery add-on enables heat energy pulled from the air during dehumidification to transfer into the pool (heating the water) or into the space (heating the surrounding air). This transfer of heat energy into the pool or the ambient space doubles the efficiency of the dehumidifying process!
SEDAC’s appraisal of the air conditioning unit supplying the pool area indicated the equipment was substantially inefficient. Family Fitness Center staff applied for DCEO incentive funds to subsidize their investment in equipment with energy-saving features.
Costs and incentives
The overall project cost for total replacement of the pool space AC unit was $291,744. Note that the dehumidification energy recovery measure—described in this case study—was only a part of this overall replacement project. Installation of the dehumidification energy recovery unit (the measure cost) makes up approximately $100,000 of the package cost. The high expense (both to remove the existing dehumidification unit, then purchase and install a new unit) compelled the Fitness Center team to locate additional funding. Since DCEO incentives had been successfully used for previous energy reduction projects in Village of Niles facilities, the team submitted an application for this Fitness Center project. Additional energy savings resulted from the replacement of the pool AC unit, a portion of the project not incentivized by DCEO. The new equipment operates at a total power of 465 kW, a reduction from the previous 482 kW.
"We had a great experience with the help from staff at SEDAC. I would recommend this to everyone."
-Carl Maniscalco, Fitness Center Director
