My office is located in a sprawling two-story brick building that was built in 1964.
Recently, the owners had the gas-fired boiler system assessed for efficiency, and the report indicated that the original boiler was operating at only 80 percent efficiency.
After getting quotes from several HVAC companies in the area, the consensus was that the savings on repair work and lower energy bills would justify the replacement cost of the system. The installation was scheduled during the summer months when there was no need to have the boiler running. A high-efficiency boiler was selected, as it had several components and safety features already built in. The management introduced the HVAC installers to the employees, and we were able to work with minimal interruptions. The timeline for the entire installation process was expected to last two weeks. Even when the deadline wasn’t met, we figured that was fairly normal…until the two weeks turned into one month, then two months, then the outside temperatures started to drop. We had to wear our jackets all day, and some people even brought in space heaters. The workers were spending more time in our work area area, replacing the hot water radiators. Then the monitoring system wasn’t operating properly, and experts had to be called in. It was getting more and more difficult to focus on our work, and the interruptions were getting more and more frequent. Finally, a state inspector came to inspect the system – twice! There were issues that had to be addressed and the process was extended again. Finally everything was finished, but not until the boiler had caused several boiling tempers along the way!
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