Merrick Incorporated Executive Director John Wayne Barker and Operations Director Pat Hanson sought to modernize the company’s HVAC controls in order to mitigate risk associated with an unsupported legacy controls system, plus enable automation and remote diagnostics /management, improve comfort, and save on energy costs. Minify Energy worked to audit, engineer, and propose a solution leveraging 75F building automation solutions, bipolar ionization, HVAC equipment service, and internal and external LED Lighting upgrades, plus financing solutions, grants and rebates to cost-justify the project, reduce the project costs and shorten the simple payback timeframe.
Situation
A Mixed-use Building with Multiple Energy & Operations Opportunities
Merrick’s primary facility in St. Paul Minnesota is a 52,000 square feet mixed-use building including offices and meeting spaces, warehouse, production, assembly, gathering areas, and a greenhouse. Merrick conserves energy through a combination of an R21 envelope from the walls and roof, plus skylights delivering natural ambient lighting to further reduce lighting demand, and renewable energy sources to defray utility electricity and gas via a rooftop solar PV array (installed in 2008 as a Minnesota first), and a 108-bore Geothermal hydronic loop with 3 circulating pump stations ( manual-read analog pressure gauges), serving 23 heat pumps throughout the building, with a 24/7 operating Energy Recovery Ventilator recycling heat and delivering outside air. A boiler serves a radiant floor loop in the greenhouse.
The previous HVAC control system was running on a local workstation running unsupported legacy software, with 7 temperature-only thermostats determining the comfort and heat-pump controls. The team was concerned about the system’s risk of outage in case of failure, in addition to lacking several beneficial features of a modernized monitoring and automation system.
Solution
Minify Energy provided turnkey services, including assessment; solution selection, implementation, and support; financing, incentives, and rebates; and overall operational support for the Merrick team. Minify Energy reviewed utility bill data and the current systems, identifying cost savings through
Smart building controls
LED lighting upgrades (internal and external)
Bipolar ionization
HVAC equipment performance
Result
Utility Cost Reduction: The energy savings is approximately 30% from combined smart HVAC controls, bipolar ionization, and LED lighting.
Financing, Incentives, Cashflow & Simple Payback: Minify Energy identified rebates and grants to reduce the net cost of the project and accelerate the simple energy payback to under 5 years on controls and under 3 years on lighting. During the COVID-19 required shutdown, revenue and operations suffered and caused setbacks threatening the project; Minify Energy identified cashflow-neutral financing at 0% and 1% interest rates, with the ability to make payments based upon utility savings, so the project could be financed with no out-of-pocket cash outlay. Merrick leveraged CARES ACT funding for the bipolar ionization solution to create a safe and healthy environment, helping return to work operations.
Maintenance & Operations: Sensing and cloud-based automation improves operational efficiencies and allows remote access for the Merrick management team and supporting partners to receive alerts and remotely monitor all HVAC system equipment performance and zone conditions, with dashboards and real-time data and trending. These insights helped identify heat pump, hydronic loop, and ERV status and issues, allowing teams to focus and resolve priority mechanical issues. Minify Energy helped develop updated operational guides for the Merrick facility management team.
Enhanced Indoor Environment Quality and Occupant Comfort: A color-coded heatmap dashboard provides a snapshot of all 23 zones temperatures compared to setpoints, with drill-down data on measures of temperature, humidity, CO2, VOCs, light and sound levels. The indoor air quality is improved with better management of outdoor air via the ERV, and bipolar ionization treats return air to disable coronavirus and other pathogens while reducing mold, mildew, allergens, and odors.
Building a Stronger Sustainable Community
Merrick’s R21 envelope, solar and geothermal systems - and now energy-efficient lighting and HVAC - are just part of the sustainability impact story. As part of Merrick’s workforce development, they manage a recycling program with document shredding/ paper recycling, and a plastic collection & recycling program which has 1 million pounds in 2020 and 13 million pounds to date, where plastic bags are collected and repurposed into materials for decking and other applications.
About Merrick Incorporated
Merrick Incorporated empowers adults with disabilities, offering life enrichment activities, self-advocacy, workforce development, providing meaningful work for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Merrick serves over 375 such “clients”.
Minify Energy helped identify and implement solutions designed to reduce energy costs by 30% at Merrick Incorporated.