Salt Lake City, UT When Swire Coca-Cola needed to expand its Utah distribution center, their facility manager, environmental manager and mechanical engineers reviewed heating and ventilating options and made an interesting decision. Improving energy efficiency and proper ventilation were important, so they looked at the High Temperature Heating and Ventilation (HTHV) direct gas-fired technology from Cambridge Engineering. The HTHV technology has a proven record of bringing energy savings and improved indoor air quality to large commercial and industrial spaces throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Unlike air rotation units, the more energy efficient HTHV solution allowed Swire to install a heating solution that would not occupy useable floor space and would reduce energy costs. Instead of taking up valuable floor space the nine Cambridge HTHV units were installed on both the existing 300,000 s/f facility, as well as the new 300,000 s/f distribution center’s rooftop. Once installed Swire was able to remove the old air rotation units and regain use of the floor space that they once occupied.

After the first full heating season Swire’s energy costs for the existing and new facility remained the same as the prior year. Even though there was no formal study, and they added an additional 300,000 s/f, Swire felt that the HTHV technology that they installed in their existing location and the new 300,000 s/f expansion was a large contributor to the zero increase in their energy costs to heat the entire facility. 

With HTHV having better energy efficiency than the air rotation heaters, choosing the HTHV option for the new 300,000 section of the building as well as in the existing 300,000 s/f building was the right decision, says Jon Boettcher, corporate facilities manager of Swire Coca-Cola. 

“The Cambridge engineering support team worked well with our building automation system installers and maintenance team to find the optimal working conditions for our HTHV system. This has allowed us to not only heat this space far more efficiently than we did with the previous air rotation system, but to also take advantage of free cooling that makes our warehouse space much more comfortable in the summer months. The nine Cambridge HTHV units are quite reliable, requiring minimum time from our maintenance team and also providing redundancy not seen with the massive single air rotation unit previously installed within this facility “ 

Because of the energy savings that Swire realized in their Salt Lake City facility, Swire decided to install the Cambridge HTHV technology in their Johnstown, CO facility as well. This winter will be that facilities first winter using the technology and they expect to see a reduced overall energy costs at the Johnstown location as well.

Success stories such as Swire is proof that HTHV technology is one of the most energy efficient way to heat high bay distribution and warehouse facilities throughout the U.S. In addition to Swire’s energy reduction from HTHV technology an energy modeling study by GARD Analytics was conducted comparing air rotation, as well as other heating technologies, to HTHV. The resulting data supports the same conclusion….HTHV is the most energy efficient way to heat high bay buildings.