1150 N. Lake Shore Drive Condominium Association Demand-Ventilation Project

1150 N. Lake Shore Drive Condominium Association is a multi-family high rise located in the charming Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago. Residents have their vehicles parked in an attached, heated, parking garage at ground, basement, and sub-basement levels.

Edwards Engineering was invited by Sudler Property Management to speak to their Property Managers about Peoples Gas and ComEd incentives and rebates. From what was heard at the meeting, the 1150 Lake Shore Property Manager came to Edwards Engineering requesting a solution for their parking garage that would incorporate both safety and energy savings. The garage did not have any sensors to monitor carbon monoxide (CO) levels. The exhaust fans serving the garage were running 24/7/365. Outside air openings to the garage were without a damper system. Because of this, the hot water fan coil units serving the parking garage were operating almost full-time during the winter months.

After site visits and discussions with the customer, Edwards Engineering developed a demand ventilation project for the parking garage. Included in the project were dampers for the outside air intake openings, carbon monoxide transmitters, a carbon monoxide control panel, and new motors for the exhaust fans with variable frequency drives.

The control panel receives a signal from the carbon monoxide transmitters that there is a higher than allowable level of CO in an area, or areas, of the parking garage. The panel then sends a signal for the dampers to open and exhaust fans to start and ramp up to a level sufficient enough to cleanse the area, or areas, with a high CO level. The solution allows for electrical savings by limiting the exhaust fan operation to only as needed. Since cold outside air will not consistently flow into the garage, natural gas usage will dramatically decrease by the hot water fan coil units operating less often.

Before the project proposal was presented, representatives from Peoples Gas and ComEd were brought in by Edwards Engineering to evaluate the potential energy savings. Peoples gas determined that the customer would save over $26,000 per year in gas usage. For this, Peoples Gas proposed to the customer a custom energy savings rebate of $39,244.18. The total return on investment for this project to the 1150 Lake Shore Condominium Association was a mere 1.6 years.