University Medical Center (UMC) in burgeoning Las Vegas opened a new 56,000-square-foot emergency room addition in summer 2000 to complement its 1.2 million-square-foot, 508-room healthcare complex.
The expansion required an upgrade to the medical center’s chiller plant, and that’s where York International Corp. teamed with Dunham Associates to provide the right prescription.
According to John McElhone, mechanical engineer for Dunham Associates, “We were asked by UMC to design a new central plant that would … have enough reserve capacity to accommodate future expansions. It would also have to be efficient at part-load capacity since some of the new expansions wouldn’t be complete for a couple of years.”
To meet this need, YORK supplied a new 1,000-ton Millennium chiller, variable-speed-drive retrofits on an existing pair of YORK 1,000-ton machines, new controls, and refrigerant recovery equipment.
UMC officials say the YORK equipment is expected to save 2.4 million kWh per year – or $149,000 in annual electricity costs – resulting in a simple payback of about three years.
The new YORK Millennium chiller, which uses HFC-134a refrigerant, also features a YORK OptiSpeed variable-speed drive and a harmonic filtration device, which eliminates harmonic current distortion that can disrupt electrical equipment. The retrofitted, 1,000-ton YORK centrifugal machines also use HFC-134a.
All three chillers now feature the YORK OptiView microprocessor chiller-control center. OptiView delivers real-time chiller operational data in an easily understood, graphical fashion.
Rounding out the YORK equipment are four 20,000-cfm Pace custom rooftop air-handling units and a stationary refrigerant recovery unit, which alleviates equipment downtime during service. Millennium chiller with OptiSpeed and OptiView by YORK International Corp., York, PA,
