Customer Profile
Crouse Hospital is a private, not-for-profit hospital located in Syracuse, NY. It was founded in 1887 and has cared for generations of Central and Northern New Yorkers for over 130 years. The hospital offers general and specialty care, inpatient and outpatient services, and community health education and outreach programs. It serves over 22,000 discharges, 82,000 emergency room visits, and 365,000 outpatient visits yearly.
Customer Challenge
The customer required air handling unit replacements in the sub-basement of the hospital – an area located below the main basement of the building. The hospital’s current units were over 50 years old, had air leakage issues, and used one fan per unit, providing little redundancy. Because these units serviced operating and lab space within the hospital, the project had to be completed with minimal-to-no downtime.
Stark Tech Solution
The Stark Tech team worked with an engineering firm to replace the two air handling units with a single 55,000 cfm Air Enterprises air handler. This product is designed to last the life of a facility, dramatically improving its efficiency and sustainability. The hospital’s new AHU includes an energy recovery wheel built in place of one of the older units. Rather than discarding used building air, the energy recovery wheel will salvage valuable energy and transfer it to incoming, fresh air. This will save the facility energy by decreasing the need for winter heating and summer cooling. The unit also includes a fan array system which requires significantly less energy than traditional fans and provides redundancy. This increases the reliability of the AHU and allows for tighter control.
Result
The entire replacement project took a total of ten weeks. 90% of the replacement air handling unit was assembled inside the facility. Then, for two weekends, the unit was connected to existing ducts, meeting the design performance requested. The hospital experienced no downtime. Upgrading to a single Air Handling Unit allowed the hospital to free up mechanical room floorspace and created more energy efficiencies. It also reduced maintenance time for the controls team while sustaining the same operational capacity.
Before:
After:
Stark Tech’s Equipment team creates custom HVAC, Critical Power & Boiler Room solutions for commercial, industrial, and mission critical building applications.
Stay informed on our latest industry insights, products & services, and career opportunities. Follow us on LinkedIn and subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay connected!
