HVAC Projects

SWIRE COCA-COLA, Salt Lake City

Retrofit Team

MECHANICAL ENGINEER: Colvin Engineering Associates, Salt Lake City
HVAC INSTALLER: Western Sheet Metal Inc., Salt Lake City
GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Big-D Construction, Salt Lake City

The Retrofit

Swire Coca-Cola produces, sells and distributes Coca-Cola and other beverages in 13 states across the western U.S. Company representatives opted to retrofit their existing 300,000-squarefoot distribution center for efficiencies. In addition, they wanted to ensure a new 300,000-square-foot distribution center also was as efficient as possible. In both buildings, proper ventilation also was very important, so the company’s facility manager, environmental manager, and mechanical engineer reviewed all potential heating and ventilation options.

Their ultimate decision was to utilize a high-temperature heating and ventilation (HTHV) direct-fired gas system that had a proven record of bringing energy savings and improved indoor air quality to large commercial and industrial spaces.

Nine HTHV units from Cambridge Engineering were installed on the existing facility and the new distribution center’s rooftops. These units utilize 100 percent outside air to produce a discharge temperature of 160 F. The units provide uniform air temperatures throughout both facilities through destratification, without the use of supplemental fans. Additionally, once the new units were installed, Swire Coca-Cola representatives removed their air-rotation unit from the existing facility and regained the valuable floor space that the rotation unit once occupied.

“The Cambridge Engineering support team worked well with our building automation system installers and maintenance team to find the optimal working conditions for our HTHV system,” explains Jon Boettcher, corporate facilities manager of Swire Coca-Cola. “This has allowed us to not only heat this space far more efficiently than we did with the previous air-rotation system, but also take advantage of free cooling that makes our warehouse space much more comfortable in the summer months. The nine Cambridge HTHV units are quite reliable, requiring minimal attention from our maintenance team and also providing redundancy not seen with the massive single air-rotation unit previously installed within this facility.”

After the first full heating season, Swire Coca-Cola’s energy costs for the existing and new facility remained the same as the prior year—when only one building was operating. Although they did not conduct a formal energy study, Swire Coca-Cola representatives believe the HTHV technology was a large contributor to their energy savings. In fact, they were so pleased with the efficiency, they later installed Cambridge Engineering HTHV units in their Johnstown, Colo., facility and are expecting reduced energy costs there, as well.

HTHV UNIT MANUFACTURER: Cambridge Engineering

Photo: CAMBRIDGE ENGINEERING