On December 5, 2023, Elara Engineering was formally recognized by ASHRAE’s Illinois Chapter with three 2023 Excellence-in-Engineering Awards. This year’s recognized projects include:
- 161 North Clark Street – Fan System Replacement
- Loyola University Health Sciences Campus (LHSC); Center for Translational Research and Education (CTRE) – Winter Cooling Heat Exchanger
- School District 300 Big Timber Elementary School – New Construction
We congratulate both Elara’s and each client’s dedicated project team for their vision, hard work, innovation, and collaboration that led to this well-deserved achievement. We further extend our thanks to the owners and managers of these award-winning buildings for their ongoing commitment to sustainable, energy efficient projects.
With these three additional awards, Elara has now received 33 ASHRAE chapter awards – each one uniquely showcasing our team’s ability to consistently deliver practical solutions and designs, and innovated applications of existing and new technologies.
161 North Clark Street: Fan System Replacement
- Variable-speed ECM fans utilized in an array configuration allowed the fan systems to modulate fan speed based on duct static as measured at the top and bottom of the building’s primary supply air shafts which serve VAV FPBs on each floor of the building to achieve significant fan energy savings during operation of the system.
- Improved indoor air quality was accomplished by optimization of the economizer sequences and replacement of the mixed air, outdoor air, and exhaust air dampers as part of the project.
- Full project details can be found here.
Loyola University Center for Translational Research and Education: Winter Cooling Heat Exchanger
- Implemented solution consists of a new water-to-water heat exchanger that connects the CTRE chilled water loops to existing heat recovery coils in the air handlers. No new pumps were required as all existing pumps were found to be capable of supporting the new heat exchangers.
- A key benefit of the new design is that the system can now be changed over quickly from the new heat exchanger to the original chiller loop with four manual changeover valves and one existing automatic control valve.
- Full project details can be found here.
School District 300 Big Timber Elementary School: New Construction
- The project further developed the school district’s model school MEP systems (previously updated 14 years prior) and included energy efficiency enhancements and airborne infectious contaminant control strategies.
- Ventilation system comprised of 7 AHUs including 3 DOAS units and separate AHUs for specialty spaces, each with an energy wheel for heat recovery providing demand-controlled ventilation air or space conditioning.
- Full project details can be found here.
