Page 75 - North American Clean Energy March April 2015

ADVERTORIAL

Developing the natural gas cooling market

By John Cole, CEO Intellichoice

THE NATURAL GAS INDUSTRY has clearly entered a new era. hrough an expected to provide up to 50 percent savings in heating and cooling costs.
ever-expanding natural gas supply resource base, the U.S. has adequate In all of these projects, the public natural gas systems partnered with ICE in training contractors,

natural gas supplies to meet its needs well into the foreseeable future. developing case studies, and they all now plan to showcase the NextAire GHP to other building owners in
As a result, consumers are enjoying very afordable and stable natural their service areas. he process begins with a good HVAC solution and system, then develops with trained
gas pricing.
mechanical contractors, and eventually works its way into the building design community.
On the other end of the spectrum though, as of 2014, Americans are

now paying some of the highest electricity rates in history, and the cost “At locations all over the county, our clients are saving substantial dollars on their utility costs over what they would
burden of adding new electric generation capacity in many instances
be paying with more conventional units. And with electric rates continuing to climb as fast as they are, natural gas
is not feasible. Electricity production in the U.S. has been declining rates staying relatively stable because of production increases, and given the quality of our NextAire product line, it
since 2007, while some areas’ electrical infrastructures are at such a full makes a lot of sense for new and retroit projects to consider the NextAire brand for their HVAC systems,” says Tom

capacity, that they cannot expand and must incentivize local businesses Young, CTO and Founder of Intellichoice.
and citizens to begin using alternative energy products to save electric
grid capacity. Additionally, the aging of the power grid infrastructure
is causing more outages and problems, and by one account, would cost

$107 billion by 2020 to ix and upgrade.
his dichotomy between the gas and electric industries has paved the
way for new innovative technologies and products in the residential and
commercial natural gas cooling market. As such, Americans are now

taking notice of innovative and energy-eicient alternative technology
and creating tremendous new opportunities for gas cooling businesses
across the country.

Intellichoice Energy, LLC (ICE) has begun to seize this opportunity
by ofering products in the U.S. natural gas cooling market. One of the
most eicient and innovative products ofered by ICE is the NextAire
gas heat pump (GHP). he ICE NextAire commercial GHP can provide a

good heating and cooling solution for many building owners. Not a new
technology, this product has been evolving in the U.S. since the 1980s.
Worldwide, there are over 700,000 GHP units installed, and the U.S. has
only a fraction of these installations. Given the current natural gas price

environment, and the higher electricity prices, the NextAire heating,
ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system can reduce a building’s
space conditioning costs by as much as 50-80 percent. Also, when a
natural gas heat pump is deployed, an electric utility can beneit through

less utilization during peak summer periods.
he NextAire eight-ton units can function for up to 17 separate and
distinct areas, while the 15-ton units can function for up to 33 separate
and distinct areas of a building. In new construction, product lines

can earn LEED points, which help satisfy local requirements for more
green-oriented and environmentally responsible properties within
communities. hese units simply require standard electrical and gas
infrastructure hookups available in most buildings, and they can be used

for many construction areas including commercial, residential (above
3,000 square feet), schools, government, and military bases.
Public natural gas systems are capitalizing on these attractive
statistics. Several public natural gas systems are working with ICE to

develop the gas cooling market within their service areas. By focusing
on return on investment for owners, value engineering, and HVAC
contractor training and development, ICE understands it is critical to
bring the right HVAC heating and cooling solution to clients.

Several public natural gas utilities that have installed a NextAire unit
are below.
• Okaloosa Gas District in Valparaiso, Fla., installed two 15-

ton NextAire units in its corporate oice in 2012. his 30-year-old
corporate facility was in need of a complete HVAC system replacement.
Reports now show substantial energy savings and eiciency for this
12,700 square foot facility.

• City of Dublin, Ga., installed one 15-ton NextAire unit at its city
hall in April 2014. his historic building utilizes over 30 tons of
cooling and now has a section of the building where heating and
cooling are delivered by the NextAire GHP. Included in the installation

are 11 Daiken air handling units that create a multi-zone climate
control solution for occupants. he Gas Technology Institute (GTI)
has installed performance monitoring equipment at this site to get
detailed performance data on the unit.

• City of Statesboro, Ga., installed one 15-ton NextAire unit at a
renovated city ire station in August 2014. his installation, also in
need of multiple zoning, features zone temperature control and is

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