Building Systems
Engineered Solutions
We offer engineered solutions for building equipment and system upgrades. Since 1996 we have been providing cost effective engineered solutions for manufacturers, building owners, tenant spaces, churches, schools and more. We are professional engineers and certified energy managers. We have the experience to evaluate your facility and accurately apply the latest energy efficient technologies. A Hawkeye Building Systems solution is rooted in reducing energy cost and improving performance.
Consider some of the following energy saving options:
Variable Speed Drives - Save energy and protect existing constant speed motors with variable speed drives. For most variable torque motors, changing the speed to match the actual load reduces energy usage exponentially. For example, consider the following annual cost differences for reducing the speed of a 100 horsepower fan motor operating for 2000 hours per year.
| Percent of maximum speed |
RPM | Horsepower Usage | Cost ($) |
|---|---|---|---|
100% |
1725 |
100 hp |
$11,936 |
75% |
1294 |
42.2 hp |
$5,036 |
50% |
863 |
12.5 hp |
$1,492 |
33% |
575 |
3.7 hp |
$442 |
Chillers, Boilers and Cooling Towers – Replace aging systems with today's smaller more efficient systems. Have boilers serviced including a check of flue gases to make sure the units are operating properly and are not using too much excess combustion air. Consider upgrading the controls and drives on your cooling tower to stage and/or adjust the speed of the fans based on the load.
Fans, Pumps and Motorized Systems - All motors 1 hp and above operating 2000 hours per year (or more) are good candidates for high efficiency motor replacement. Upgrading aging pumps with smaller and more accurately sized pumps significantly reduces operating cost. Correcting even short runs of undersized piping can also mean thousands of dollars a year in energy savings.
Economizers - Take advantage of ambient air conditions by saving energy with airside and waterside economizers. For instance, many chilled water systems are forced to run to serve very small loads when they are over sized to begin with. Adding a waterside economizer allows the cooling tower to handle the load without the chiller. This saves significant operating cost, protects and increases the life of the chiller.
Waste Heat Recovery – Recover, recuperate and /or regenerate waste heat from compressors and processes such as high temperature furnaces and high pressure steam systems. Many processes and every day compressed air systems have waste heat ready to be used for comfort heating, domestic hot water or any number of other uses. Any system that discharges flue gases above 450F is a good candidate for heat recovery. Systems above 1200 F are very good candidates.
Energy Recovery – Take advantage of excess exhaust air and pre-condition required make up air with any number of today's cost effective energy recovery technologies. This includes heat wheels and air to air heat exchangers.
Capacitors – Consider evaluating your power factor if you have old lighting, arc welders, induction heating equipment, lifting magnets, dry pack transformers, many motors or large motors. Low power factors may be costing you money. Most motors actually operate at part load most of the time and to make matters worse power factor decreases with a decrease in loading. Depending on how you are billed for power, properly installed capacitors will increase your power factor and reduce low power factor penalty charges on your electric bill.
Air Conditioning Equipment – Upgrade aging system with newer systems that include today's cost effective energy saving options such as occupancy sensors, CO2 sensors, economizers and higher SEER ratings. Keep existing coils clean, change filters and have the refrigerant levels checked.
Monitor Your Energy Usage – See the Why Monitor Energy section for some of the reasons why businesses are installing today’s cost effective, web based energy monitoring equipment. Also see the Energy Monitoring section for more information on our Hawkeye Energy Monitoring System!
Lighting – One of the easiest ways to save energy is by replacing old lighting technology. See the Lighting Retrofit section!
Why Choose Hawkeye Building Systems?
Because we are qualified engineers and operating costs are important. Most equipment and system upgrades can be handled in any number of ways. In many cases 'first cost' determines how systems are purchased. While first cost is important, owners can be left with unnecessarily high operating cost for the entire life of the system. Our professional engineering staff has the expertise to evaluate existing building systems and provide accurate return on investment calculations so our customers are fully aware of all their options.
Strike a Balance
The best solutions for equipment and system upgrades strike a balance between first cost and the cost of operations. Hawkeye Building Systems solutions balance these two critical items.
Start to Finish
We have the experience and expertise to take the project from start to finish. We start with the design, we collect competitive bids, we project manage the installation and we finish when the systems are tested and balanced.
Contact us today and get started saving energy!
