Multi-Purpose Center Slated For Sustainability

EDITORS’ CHOICE

Roof cover boards

DEXcell roof boards:

• Includes glass mat, FA glass mat, cement products • Mold resistant • Cement type provides fi re and thermal barriers

DEXcell line of high-performance roof cover boards includes a glass mat product, an FA glass mat product for fully adhered membrane systems, and a cement roof product.  e cement board is lightweight and is said to withstand prolonged exposure to moisture.  e glass-mat products are mold resistant and available in 1/4-, 1/2-, and 5/8-in. thicknesses and 4 ft. wide in 4- and 8-ft. lengths.  e cement roof board provides fi re and thermal barriers in a 7/16-in. thickness.

National Gypsum, Charlotte, NC Circle 74

Ridge vent Shark Vent XLP is an externally baffl ed ridge vent available in 25-ft. rolls. The nail-gunnable product provides continuous airfl ow along the attic ridge. Xtra, a fi ltered option, is available for extreme weather areas.

Benjamin Obdyke Inc., Horsham, PA Circle 75

Metal trim panels Alucobond Axcent fl at panels are painted aluminum panels for building trim. Colors match the company’s most popular stocked colors. The 0.04-in.-thick panels have application as fascia, fl ashing, and roof caps.

3A Composites, Statesville, NC Circle 76

Transparent media façade Transparent media façade systems include Mediamesh and Illumesh. Rows of LEDs, woven into stainless-steel mesh, transform large façade areas into communication platforms day and night. Mediamesh is available with six LEDs/pixel and with RGB SMD LEDs for outdoor applications.

GKD-USA, Cambridge, MD Circle 77

McNichols Co. 18 Service Centers Nationwide 800.237.3820 mcnichols.com

Antimicrobial roof coating Clear-Shield Rx coating is a clear-acrylic, non-toxic technology that provides rooftops with at least 12 months of antimicrobial roof protection. The coating is reported to resist bacterial and fungal growth to reduce the rate at which the roof surface will discolor or deteriorate.

The Garland Co., Cleveland Circle 78

Composite acoustical roof decks The company’s panels are used as the substrate for its roof deck systems. The panels use Dow Styrofoam or EPS for insulation and an OSB board for a nailable surface and to reduce noise within a space.

Tectum Inc., Newark, OH Circle 79

Energy Management Aids Conservation An Alerton energy-management system links critical building areas at a Phoenix hotel.

The Sheraton Phoenix Downtown hotel uses an Alerton building-management system that provides energy efficiency and monitoring of a variety of building systems. T he Sheraton Phoenix Downtown hotel, a Starwood Hotel and Resorts Worldwide Inc. property, is designed and built from the ground up to be a model of water and energy conservation, while providing maximum guest comfort. With 1,000 guest rooms and suites and 80,000 sq. ft. of meeting space that includes a 29,000-sq.-ft. ballroom and 17 meeting rooms, the hotel is the largest in Arizona.

The property’s conservation efforts extend to energy, including heating, ventilating, and air conditioning; water; and lighting. To effectively monitor the building’s systems for optimal energy savings, hotel management chose a BACnet-based solution from Alerton Inc., Redmond, WA, installed by Climatec Building Technologies Group, Phoenix.

The biggest challenge for Dan Abel, director of engineering for the hotel, was getting to know a new energy-management system (EMS) and how best to use and maximize its capabilities. “To really maximize the system’s capabilities, we worked with Climatec to strategically customize a refrigeration-monitoring system for approximately 80 refrigeration units within the hotel,” Abel said.

Climatec installed Alerton Building Suite front-end software to manage the hotel’s HVAC system and to integrate a number of other building systems and devices. The energy-management sys

tem provides energy-efficient operation, including occupancy-based HVAC control, scheduling, and notification. The Sheraton Phoenix project also includes chill and hot water systems, air-handling units, refrigeration units, VAV (variable air volume) units, and an emergency generator.

The system monitors the electrical demand for four power meters located in the hotel’s electrical room at ground level. Abel and his staff are already working on integrating auto-demand load-shedding programming in the EMS that will allow even more effective energy conservation for the property.

Refrigeration units are monitored by the Alerton EMS through VisualLogic unitary controllers. The custom-built, walk-in refrigeration units store food and beverages for the hotel, including dining, room service, and event banquets. Sensors provide Abel and his staff with temperatures every five minutes. Programmed notifications let the staff know if a refrigeration unit is running temperatures that are too high or too low. Adjustments are then made so the unit is operating at maximum energy efficiency. “We create log files on all our Alerton-monitored equipment—even our refrigeration units,” Abel said.

SCHEDULING ENERGY SAVINGS Nightly schedules program the hotel’s cooling for the following day. Schedules are also used to request fan cooling or heating in the meeting spaces. Flexible scheduling within the system allows the staff to temporarily modify settings before the system returns to pre-set parameters.

For example, if a ballroom is scheduled to turn on its heating or cooling at 8:00 a.m., but a potential customer would like to tour the area at 7:00 a.m., the staff can override the schedule and energize the ballroom for a set period of time, for example, 30 min. After the default run time, the ballroom shuts down until its regularly scheduled start-up time. One of Abel’s next projects is to integrate the lighting into the EMS as well, and time it with the heating and cooling.

Currently, Abel’s staff uses Admiral cell phones from Motorola Solutions Inc., Schaumburg, IL, to communicate with the Alerton system. Climatec created a number of custom graphics for the phones that allow viewing and response to the most common critical issues. Building technicians use the phones to view and adjust setpoints and receive and respond to notifications. The phone system even allows one engineer to help another without both having to be at the problem site or at a console.

With the system in place, Abel doesn’t yet have a baseline to compare year-to-year energy savings, but he looks forward to the possibilities. One work already in progress is the auto-demand, load-shedding interface that will allow staff to shed electrical loads when the demand reaches a pre-determined level.

“I can tell you that once we put the load shedding in, I can review the past year and find out, for example,

Brick • Permeable Pavers • Asphalt Block • Garden and Landscape Walls ® Pavers • Roof and Plaza Pavers • Prest ® how many days and the exact times I went over our

Prest demand,” said Abel. “I can show quantifiable savings.”

“If you can think it, you really can create it,” he continued. “The scalability—the ‘buildability’—is endless. That’s what I like about Alerton.”

For Abel, the key to the success of the hotel’s energy-conservation efforts is BACnet compatibility and the flexibility and openness that communication protocol provides. “I’ve worked with other systems that are proprietary and you are simply restricted in expansion capabilities,” said Abel. “When I work with other vendors, the first question I ask is, ‘Is your system BACnet compatible?’” CBP

DATA CACHE

Want more information? The resources below are linked in our digital magazine at cbpmagazine.com/digital/apr2014.

Circle 3 on the Reader Service Card.

Listen to the Commerial Conversation podcast, “Drive Energy Costs Down With Building Automation: Kevin Callahan,” to learn more about building-automation trends.

Download a brochure on Alerton’s Ascent BAS that combines BACnet capability and Tridium’s Niagara framework in a single controller.

Download Ascent’s hospitality brochure. Building-Automation Podcast Building-automation systems/ controls are a critical part of any energy-effi cient facility. Learn more in our Commercial Conversation podcast with Kevin Callahan, Alerton Inc., Redmond, WA. Click on the microphone in the digital edition or visit commercialconversation.com.

Hanover ® Permeable 4 1 /2” x 9” This ADA compliant permeable paver allows for stormwater drainage and manages excess runoff, facilitating LEED Green Building certification.

www.hanoverpavers.com • 800.426.4242