The Bell County Expo Center opened in 1987, and attracts over half a million visitors each year for concerts, rodeos, trade shows, and more. The 81,000 square foot facility features a 68-foot high geodesic dome and seats over 6,500 people. In 2015, the building underwent renovations to replace its outdated modular chiller plant, as well as interior and exterior lighting. HTS worked with Performance Services to provide new equipment that would be more sustainable, environmentally responsible, and have a longer user cycle than the existing obsolete equipment.

The interior and exterior lighting had originally used T-12 lighting, which is now banned and was replaced with brighter, more efficient LED lights. The center’s air handling units were fitted with new filters and eight new drives, and a new 3,000 MBTU condensing boiler was installed.

The original mechanical room was scrapped and replaced with a modular chiller plant housing two 500-ton Daikin Magnitude Magnetic Bearing Chillers with chilled water plant optimization software and variable flow pumping. Two cooling towers were mounted on top of the central plant, and Bell County has the ability to add to and expand the plant in the future if needed. A Building Automation System was also installed to allow for easy control of all the new equipment.

The savings brought to the facility from these renovations includes an estimated $160,000 in rebates alone based on the energy efficient equipment. Electrical energy and maintenance savings total more than $186,000 each year, which will allow the payback period for the renovations to be less than six years. Watch the video below to learn more about the project.