Cinemark Holdings uses its 16-theater cinema in Allen, Texas near its Plano headquarters to beta test new technologies and HVAC is no exception. Cinemark operates 486 theaters with 5,595 screens across 40 U.S. states and 13 Latin American countries. The company seeks economical HVAC operations, particularly in high-energy-usage climates. Energy savings, dehumidification, and occupant comfort are chief criteria.
At the Cinemark Allen 16, HTS provided a Daikin Rebel 7.5-ton commercial packaged rooftop system that was tested against two other name-brand rooftop units for a year-long trial. The Daikin Rebel unit was installed in February 2013 with a heat pump/gas configuration to serve one theater. “The unit was submetered and tied into Cinemark’s building automation system (BAS) via the MicroTech III controls on the Rebel unit,” said Robert Teetsel, national accounts manager with Daikin Applied.
“Maintaining low humidity levels is important to this customer given the variability of occupant levels in a theater. Using the single zone, variable air volume (VAV) approach, we were able to do that without wasting energy,” said Victor McBride, Daikin Applied representative with HTS Engineering in Dallas.
Results for the 12-months ending March 31, 2014, revealed that the Rebel unit outperformed a leading manufacturer’s high-performance unit by 30% (configured to single-zone VAV for a true head-to-head competition) and outperformed another leading mfr’s standard performance unit by >50%. As a result of Rebel’s superior performance, Cinemark made a large installation of the units to serve an entire theater in Oklahoma and is considering additional Daikin Applied systems for high-energy-use areas throughout the country.
