Midwood Cultural Center
Background
The Midwood International & Cultural Center is housed in what used to be a Charlotte-Mecklenburg school building. The brick facility was having an issue with excessive energy costs and the occupants were constantly complaining about temperature fluctuations. The individual who supervised the Midwood property did not feel like their current HVAC maintenance company understood the building’s HVAC system and how it worked. They could not offer any helpful insight into the high energy bill or temperature issues, nor could the equipment manufacturer. By way of a referral, United Mechanical was invited to survey the situation.
UMC Approach
As is habit, the first thing United Mechanical President Bob McHolland did was to have his team do a thorough assessment of the Midwood building and its entire mechanical system. Not only did United Mechanical get a solid understanding of how everything worked, but they were able to provide valuable system information to Midwood that had previously been unknown. And, in the follow up report sent to Midwood, United Mechanical was able to make some viable recommendations as to where improvements could be made to address the energy costs and temperature concerns.
Results
United Mechanical was hired to provide the service recommendations outlined in their follow up report. One of the things United Mechanical discovered was that improper sequencing of the HVAC controls system was causing some equipment to run continuously-equipment that definitely should not have been running continuously. Proving that they were able to correctly troubleshoot the persistent issues, United Mechanical made subsequent adjustments to the automated controls that became immediately reflected in the energy bill and the overall comfort of the building occupants. Not only was United Mechanical hired to fix the controls sequencing issues, they were hired to take over ongoing Preventive Maintenance at the facility. It became apparent to Midwood that not every HVAC maintenance contractor really understood the mechanics behind HVAC systems and efficient building operation. But, luckily for them, United Mechanical did.
