The following ENERJOY Installations were award winning entries at the Radiant Panel Association Systems Showcase Award Ceremony at Chantilly, Virginia, October 11, 2005:

 

 

ENERJOY® Installation: 

Cooley Law School

East Lansing, Michigan

 

Radiant Comfort Heating

     

 Cooley Law School is the largest law school in the country, with multiple Michigan campuses and national internet instruction courses. Cooley purchased a ten story circa 1970’s building in East Lansing, Michigan to serve as headquarters. Each floor was removed and the structure converted to a six story building of the same height, permitting a grand, fully updated and securitized office and classroom structure. With a large arched window over ten (10) feet wide and five (5) feet tall in each office and the office areas, they wanted to assure perimeter comfort right up to the window.

       The renovation has been an ongoing project, with the offices and lobbies completed in 2000, and the 5th and 6th floors completed in 2005. ENERJOY Radiant Ceiling Panels were chosen both initially and for the final completion. Above each arched office area window are five (5) revealed edge 2 foot by 2 foot (2’ X 2’) T bar grid lay-in ceiling panels, which perfectly match the chosen ceiling tiles.

        The building has an extensive ventilation system to assure optimum indoor air quality. The air, which is tempered according to the area needs, maintains the desired building temperature at the specified dry bulb air temperature set point. Located by each window, just above the sill, is a thermostat which is set to activate the ENERJOY panels whenever the perimeter air temperature falls more than four (4) degrees below the master area temperature set point. In this way, the occupant, whose chair is just in front of the window facing the desk, can be comfortable as the cold window down draft is eliminated.

          The expansive ground floor lobby has multiple entrances, spiral stair case, and reception, study, meeting, and lounge areas. There are large floor to ceiling windows and ample opportunity for drafts and discomfort due to swinging door entry, revolving door entry, open stair case to the second floor, and slab on grade floor. ENERJOY panels are used to address each of these heat losses by working with the laws of physics to take advantage of the opacity of glass to long wave radiant energy, radiant warming of the floor, tempering of surface temperatures near the entries, and provision of radiant warmth upon entry.

       With over 1,000 panels installed, there have been no failures due to manufacturing defects. Occupant thermal comfort has been maintained in the harsh Michigan winter conditions, valuable office space has been fully used right up to the perimeter, and ENERJOY was reordered for the final phase of building completion. The Facilities Manager, RJ Brennan, says of the effectiveness of ENERJOY “It’s a great design that works real well. We will consider it for other campus building renovations that may be done.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

ENERJOY®

Installation:

Compuware

Detroit, Michigan

 

Perimeter and Task

Heating

 

       The Compuware Building is the showcase office structure in Detroit’s revitalized Campus Martius area. The building is a 15-story state of the art steel and glass construction with 1.1 million square feet, of which 60,000 square feet is floor level space leased by prime retail tenants. Attached is a dedicated 12-story attached parking garage for visitors and over 4000 Compuware employees.   The Compuware facility includes an expansive day care center, cafeteria, fitness center, multi-function atrium, auditorium and meeting areas.

       To provide wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling comfort, over 1/3 of a mile of custom dimension, flush mounted, end-to-end ENERJOY ceiling panels are located in the perimeter ceiling soffit in day care center rooms, the large employee cafeteria, and the Executive Offices. Installation was very easy as the panels were wired in parallel and ‘dropped’ into the J- bead, T-bar grid-like channel that was designed into the soffit, running along the ceiling of the entire perimeter with floor-to-ceiling glass in areas to

be heated.

       The entire building is controlled by a computer software management system centrally monitored by the building engineer who is able to adjust the operating parameters for the ENERJOY panels to assure building comfort based upon the comfort requirements within the actual space. Specifically, the panels were designed to the optimum watt density to assure long, low wattage operation and to eliminate short cycling-related occupant discomfort. Panel activation is based upon the outside air temperature. The set point was chosen in relation to the building balance point at which perimeter mean radiant temperature may lead to occupant discomfort.

            A refinement of the original control system enables harvesting of solar energy heat gain by deactivating air based temperature signals to the central system.  Installation of radiant sensing thermostats at the perimeter on the sides of the building where winter solar gain is significant not only turns off the heat when unneeded, but also assures optimum occupant thermal comfort based upon operative temperature at all times.

       Chris Hewitt, Engineering Manager from Hines, the company responsible for building operation, says “The ENERJOY radiant perimeter design works as intended providing infant, employee, and executive comfort right up the edge of the building, without maintenance, noise, or intrusion into the floor space. There are no comfort complaint calls.”