On December 3, 2024, ASHRAE’s Illinois Chapter officially recognized Elara Engineering with two 2024 Excellence-in-Engineering Awards. This year’s award-winning projects include:
- 474 North Lake Shore Drive Condominiums – Energy Audit, Retrofits
- Loyola University Health Sciences Campus (LHSC); Cancer Center – AHU Replacement & Upgrades
With these latest two recognitions, Elara has now received a cumulative total of 35 chapter-level ASHRAE awards. We believe each one fully represents the commitment, dedication, and technical expertise of our teams as we consistently deliver practical solutions and designs that leverage innovative applications of existing and new technologies. We congratulate both Elara’s project teams and our clients’ project teams for their vision, collaboration, innovation, and hard work for this well-deserved recognition. We also express our thanks to the owners and managers of these award-winning buildings for their ongoing commitment to sustainable, energy efficient projects.
474 North Lake Shore Drive Condominiums – Energy Audit, Retrofits
- Proactive energy efficiency improvements reduced relative energy costs by 33% since 2007 for annual savings of $184,572.
- VFDs and improved system controls reduced building system loads, allowing for the installation of smaller new chillers to further lower initial and ongoing operating costs.
- In 2014, building had an Energy Star Score of 56 and carbon emissions of 4,935 Metric Tons of CO2e. Based on 2023 data, the building’s Energy Star Score is 91 with a carbon emission of 2,926 Metric Tons of CO2e, a 41% reduction.
- Displacement Ventilation added to spaces to improve IAQ and as a primary cooling source for select high occupancy, large volume spaces.
- Full project details can be found here.
Loyola University Health Sciences Campus (LHSC); Cancer Center – AHU Replacements & Upgrades
- Two (2) Large Laboratory 100% OA air handling units were replaced within the basement of the building under tight physical constraints. New air handling units are full knockdown construction and assembled on-site. New unit capabilities include heat traced air intakes for snow melt, energy recovery, atomizing humidification, a variable speed fan array, and bypass damper operation.
- Existing Reverse Osmosis (RO) system was replaced and upgraded to increase capability for existing, new, and future RO needs as well as to improve reliability.
- Resource recovery was implemented to harvest both condensate drain water and exhaust air energy.
- The new air handler system design provides redundancy to avoid downtime of critical systems.
- Full project details can be found here.
