The Lovett Group of Companies

The Customer: The Lovett Group of Companies

The Lovett Group of Real Estate Companies provide comprehensive real estate services including property management, operations management and financial management. They take a personalized approach that emphasizes clear communication and leadership. Their attention to detail ensures that the interests of their building residents are diligently satisfied while also keeping them well apprised of pressing issues surrounding their residence.

The Challenge:

Having newly taken over the management of the building on Yellowstone Blvd., Lovett was eager to demonstrate their property management competency. They contacted Energy Conservation Services Corp. (ECS) looking for ways to economize on their energy usage. ECS proposed a set of IntelliCon controls and completed a comparative fuel utilization study based on available billing records.

Facility: Residential, condominiums.

Location: Queens, New York.

The Products Used:

IntelliCon-CHS - Commercial Steam Heating System Fuel Economizer

On October 11, 2005, three IntelliCon-CHS economizers were installed on a three Federal steam boilers that were pumping out 8,190,000 BTUs of heat plus domestic hot water in the building. Interestingly, these boilers were originally operating on heating oil but in late December they were converted to natural gas. The economizers were operational on a 24x7 basis throughout the testing period. The testing period ran from October 2005 through May 2006.

Special Note: The energy saving analysis was modified to accommodate changes in management and changes in fuel source within the testing period. With the change in property management firms, a complete monthly record of energy bills was unavailable. Lovett and ECS agreed to look at the aggregate fuel consumption and related costs from October 2004 through May 2005 without IntelliCon and October 2005 through May 2006 with IntelliCon.

The change from heating oil to natural gas further complicated the comparison in fuel costs and consumption. As a consequence, all energy savings calculations were based on a standard unit of energy—the therm. A therm is equivalent to 100,000 BTUs and is typically used as a unit of measure for the output of 1 CCF of natural gas. The #6 heating oil used in this application generates 150,000 BTUs, i.e., 1.5 therms per gallon.

The Results:

Energy Savings: The IntelliCon controls delivered significant savings over the period studied achieving a 34.81% reduction in energy consumption. The actual number of therms used between the two comparison periods was reduced by 28,547 therms. Normalizing this therm usage with historical temperature data for New York City yields a real savings of 22,027 therms.

Payback Period: Based on normalized consumption at an average 2006 cost of $1.45 per therm, they saved $15,438.81 over the 8 month study period alone. As a result, the ROI period for this Intellidyne upgrade is a short 2.85 months.