Historic building gets new life on campus CUSTOMER: State of New Hampshire APPLICATION: Chilled water LOCATION: Concord, NH CONTRACTOR: SAM Mechanical Services, LLC The industrial-style Tobey Building on the New Hampshire Hospital campus in Concord, NH, was renovated and is now considered to have one of the most state-of-the-art HVAC systems in the U.S. SAM Mechanical Services, LLC, a commercial plumbing and HVAC company in New Hampshire, helped the facility and Lavalle Brensinger Architects design and install the new HVAC system. This unique, green cooling system significantly reduces cooling costs. Power plants that serve New Hampshire must keep their output stable in order to provide needed electricity during peak daytime hours, but during off-peak hours overnight, the unused electricity goes to waste. As a result, local power plants provide special pricing during off-peak hours, which is metered separately. The off-peak ice storage production cooling system uses this reduced-rate electricity to greatest advantage. The system uses chillers to make and store ice in underground tanks overnight. During the day, when other buildings of comparable size have chiller systems running full bore, the Tobey Building is saving money by cooling with a recirculating water loop integrated into the underground ice tanks. SAM Mechanical installed Viega MegaPress fittings for the chilled water applications, an additional savings factor for the building. “We had several miles of pipe on each floor,” said Steve April, owner of SAM Mechanical. “It was a green design concept where everyone else’s bid went with geothermal.” An efficient system all around, the time required to transition the Tobey Building to this unique system was critical, given the number of components that had to come together to make it happen and perform to required specifications. The Tobey job, which had thousands of fittings, saved at least 50% of piping installation time. ” “