Case Study: ARP Humidification System
Grand Valley State University, Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Located in the heart of Grand Rapids, the Pew campus of Grand Valley State University provides students with access to resources such as businesses, hospitals, and government agencies for internships and research, serving as a powerful resource for students to compete in today’s knowledge-based economy.
Installation
ARP High-Pressure Humidification System For Five Air Handlers
Benefits
- Energy Savings
- Lower Maintenance Costs
- Improved IAQ
- Tighter Control
- $87K savings/year
The Challenge
The engineering firm contracted as the design manager for the new Health Sciences building on campus knew that operating costs and maintenance requirements were key issues with the university’s engineering staff. Right away, they started looking for ways to design an energy efficient facility that could serve the university’s needs for years to come.
The building houses research laboratories and classrooms. This makes controlling the indoor environment in an energy efficient way important. The research labs require large amounts of make-up air to offset the lab exhaust hoods. High air quality is also desired for the classrooms. To maintain the proper environment, good temperature and humidity control was critical. Doing so in a budget-friendly way was even more important.
The Solution
The engineering firm called upon American Research Products to help them in designing an energy-efficient humidity control system. The Health Sciences building has four custom air handlers with a total of 170,000 cfm operating on VAV economizer cycles, and one 100% OA make-up unit rated at 26,000 cfm. The units are served by a single high-pressure ARP HP pump that provides 1,000 psi water to the nozzle headers via staging solenoids. The system is controlled by the building control system and system status is available campus-wide.
The humidity is introduced into each air handler in a special section between the pre-heat coil and the cooling coil. Any moisture that is not absorbed in this section is collected on a droplet filter and drained.
The installed capacity in all five air handlers is 2,116 lbs/hr with an electrical load of 3.75 kW. Compared to gas-fired steam humidifiers, the energy savings are more than $87,000 per year while annual maintenance costs are reduced by $5,000.
According to the engineering firm, “The system works as designed and controls the building humidity levels perfectly.”
