Los Verdes, a three-story Class A commercial office building in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, a seaside community near Jacksonville, needed to upgrade its HVAC system after 15 years of operation. Building owners made the decision to upgrade with the same manufacturer and selected two 50-ton Daikin RoofPak applied rooftop units to ensure many years of economical service.

​

"Climate conditions require faster replacement in coastal areas," said Russ Gillette, P.E., LEED AP, sales engineer with Brooks Air Systems in Jacksonville. "The customer saw value in ordering a configuration with a variable-speed compressor in each unit for improved temperature and comfort control."

​

​

​

To avoid having to shut down the building, installation was staged over two successive weekends ending in early May 2014 for both the rooftop and controls retrofit. Mike Kelly, Sr., vice president at the installing contractor Northeast Florida Heating & Air in Jacksonville said: "We started shutting down the first machine at 5 p.m. on a Friday and disassembled duct and electrical. On Saturday, the crane arrived and we brought equipment to the site. Each replacement was completed by Sunday including the electrical, ductwork and controls."

​

Simultaneously, the building automation system (BAS), Alerton's® Envision for IBEX hardware and software, was upgraded to the latest version of Envision for BACtalk® featuring a user friendly, rich graphical interface. Said Rob Simcoe, project manager with Brooks Air Systems: "On each weekend, we retrofitted the variable air volume (VAV) fan boxes to integrate with the controls on each RoofPak unit."

​

​

​