A Comfortable Learning Environment

Founded in Oxford, Ga. by the Methodist Church in 1836, Emory University today is home to nine major academic divisions, a graduate school of arts and sciences, professional schools of medicine, theology, law, nursing, public health and business, and a 2-year undergraduate division on the original Emory campus in Oxford. Located 15 minutes from downtown Atlanta in Druid Hills, Emory today has 11,300 students and 2,500 faculty members.

Project History
With over 200 buildings on the main campus, Emory’s manager of HVAC operations and refrigerant compliance, Lawrence (L.D.) Kicak, is proud of the fact that the vast network of Emory HVAC equipment and operations are all online and administered from a single Controls Information Center (CIC). Trimble Hall, and the upper wing of the main administration building housing the office of the president, vice president and chief financial officer, is no exception. In 2003, Kicak needed to replace the 30- year-old, antiquated, 2-pipe hot water and chiller system on the ground floor of Trimble Hall, home to German language classrooms and teachers’ offices. There were indoor air quality (IAQ) issues and concern that the old system no longer met ASHRAE compliance codes.

Systems Upgrade Requirements for Trimble Hall
Kicak made a call to John Rausch, general manager, Capital City Mechanical Services, Inc., Norcross, Ga. He was searching for a ductless HVAC system that could provide simultaneous cooling and heating to 20 different classrooms and offices; a system that would have the flexibility to give the occupants of each room individual controls to their environment; a system that was quiet, efficient – one that would ease his energy bills; and finally, a system that could handle his humidity and IAQ concerns. Rausch told his client that there was only one system in the world that could stand up to these challenging demands—the CITY MULTI^® Variable Refrigerant Flow Zoning (VRFZ) system from Mitsubishi Electric HVAC. Rausch and Dean Long, Mitsubishi Electric HVAC manufacturers’ representative, visited the site and recommended two PURY- 100TMU outdoor condensing units, 10 PKFY-NAM wall-mounted indoor units, and 10 PDFY-NMU ceiling-concealed indoor units capable of bringing in the outside air.

Fantastic System: Our Indoor Air Quality is Greatly Improved
“This system is fantastic,” Kicak said. “Teachers love the individual zone control. There is almost no noise, and with virtually zero pollutants and reduced humidity our indoor air quality is greatly improved. Long said, “the Trimble installation was flawless, with minimum interruption to the teachers and students. There has not been one system-related service call in 18 months!”

Trimble Success Prompts New System in President’s Office
The Trimble Hall success convinced Kicak that the superior Mitsubishi Electric INVERTER technology would be perfect for a system overhaul in the main administration building wing housing the offices of the president, vice president and chief financial officer. Because of budget considerations, this system is being installed in phases. “One of the many CITY MULTI advantages is that because of the excellent engineering, I can build systems in phases,” he said. “They are designed to retrofit easily into existing spaces, and we can add each phase to our networked building automation system. In other words, we can stage the installation. The system is so quiet; we don’t have to line the ducts, which Emory engineers discourage because of the possibility of mold generation. And finally, because of Emory’s outdoor aesthetic rules, Mitsubishi engineers figured out a way to help us put the outdoor units in the attic.”