1301 Fannin, a 784,143 square foot office building located in Houston’s Central Business District, was recently faced with a central plant challenge. The owner had exhausted every idea to increase the capacity of their maxed out chillers with limited electrical service available. HTS Texas worked with the owner to propose a solution that maximized tonnage and stayed within their electrical capabilities. The solution added 3,000 Tons to their existing chiller plant by removing two – 1200 Ton existing chillers and installing three – 1800 Ton Daikin dual compressor centrifugal chillers with VFDs. The new chillers provide 0.627 kW/ton full load and 0.398 kW/ton part load performance.
The mechanical room is located on the 13th floor so the Daikin chillers arrived disassembled for lifting the chillers into the space. The chillers were lifted onto a narrow hallway on the roof between the generator rooms and electrical transformers. Once on the floor, the chillers were rolled into the building thru double doors. To eliminate downtime for this 24/7 facility, one existing chiller was removed and then two new chillers were lifted and installed. After installation of the first two Daikin chillers, the second existing chiller was removed and the final Daikin chiller was installed. One set of the VFD’s were temporarily set-up until this final chiller was in place to allow access to the space.
This project also included unique challenges such as street closures in downtown Houston for the weekend chiller lift. It took six to nine hours to build the main crane and another six to nine hours for tear down.
Overall, the chiller installation was a success and 1301 Fannin is now able to meet their ongoing cooling demands while saving energy.
