In an age of perennial funding issues, school administrators can have their hands full keeping up with the maintenance and utility needs of educational facilities. Faced with aging and often inadequate heating and cooling systems, it can be challenging to keep students and teachers comfortable without breaking the bank.

Operating an HVAC system year-round can eat up to 30% of a school facility’s energy costs. Inefficient HVAC systems can force facility managers to make compromises between comfort and trimming down energy bills. 

Districts can face situations like Osceola County Schools in Florida, which had to bump up thermostat settings during hot weather to save on air conditioning costs. The district faced utility bills that were $2 million more than the state average in 2018, according to news reports.

HVAC options

Modine offers multiple configurations of HVAC systems to meet the specific needs of school facilities, including the Airedale ClassMate® model DX cooling and heat pumps. Units are engineered for optimum energy efficiency. Designed to be unobtrusive in the classroom, the ClassMate® offers a small footprint and is the quietest single packaged product of its type. It incorporates advanced blower and compressor technologies and a sound-deadening compressor acoustic wrap to reduce operating noises even further. The units can also be shut off in unoccupied settings, meaning they run less than large whole-school units.

Efficiency advantages include:

• Hot gas reheat coil for dehumidification on ClassMate® and SchoolMate® units.
• Using EC fans to modulate airflow to adapt to changing load conditions. Lower fan speeds for low load conditions reduce energy consumption.
• Economizer dampers provide up to 100% free-cooling during favorable weather.
• Energy recovery wheels can precondition outside air. This requires a small financial commitment up front but offers long-term gains.

Modine offers even more HVAC options to choose from, including traditional under-the-window unit ventilators and the Airedale Sentinel® chilled/hot water unit ventilator. 

Better controls

An HVAC system is only as good as its controls. Modine Controls Systems, integrated directly into all of our school products, help managers maximize facility energy efficiency. The intuitive, easy-to-use controls systems allow superior coordination of all components of the heating and cooling systems.