Advanced pumping system dramatically lowers New Jersey building’s energy costs. Evan Samouhos was so confident in the potential energy savings offered by a new domestic water booster pump system that he fronted the purchase himself.
Evan Samouhos was so confident in the potential energy savings offered by a new domestic water booster pump system that he fronted the purchase himself.
“We had absolutely no doubt that we could slash half of the operating costs of a commercial domestic water-boosting application by using intelligent, demand-based pump technology,” recalls Samouhos, president of West Orange, N.J.-based Evco Mechanical, and a 32-year plumbing industry veteran.
“The problem, however, was convincing a price-conscious customer to invest in new technology instead of rebuilding the decades-old pressure-boosting pumps and motor drives.”
The application supported the domestic water delivery system for half of the Parkview Towers, a 684-unit affordable housing complex in West New York, N.J. Built in 1974 and located blocks from the Hudson River, the pumping station delivers domestic water to one of the twin 24-story apartment building towers.
“In recent years, variable-frequency drive technology has become more affordable and critical in bringing intelligent speed control to a number of commercial pumping applications, including domestic water boosting,” explains Peter Frangiskou, P.E., vice president of Dolphin Equipment Corp., an independent manufacturers agent based in Haworth, N.J. “The ability to scale output based on demand was the primary reason we knew we could significantly reduce energy consumption for this building.”
Convincing the end-user was not as clear-cut, however.
“We were initially skeptical of the recommendation to completely replace the system because it was still viable,” property manager Blanca Alvarez recalls. “It’s hard to justify capital investments, especially in this economy, for equipment that is operating as designed.”
Samouhos, who enjoys a long-working relationship with building management, personally guaranteed a significant energy savings with the new system, a Grundfos BoosterpaQ Pressure Boosting Station.
“I told the building owner, if the new boosters didn’t reduce energy consumption by 40% to 50%, they didn’t have to pay me a dime,” says Samouhos, who concedes he had achieved similar head-turning results since he began using the preconfigured boosting stations in 2007.
In the end, an independent project audit vindicated the daring claim by documenting a 90% energy savings over a one-week period in September 2010 and a 26-month payback period. The audit not only justified Samouhos’ recommendation, but helped cement a valuable business relationship between himself and Parkview Towers management.