Downers Grove South High School

District 99 incorporated their architect and engineer’s design with Precision‘s design/build expertise to renovate a 400,000 square foot high school in 20 weeks.  The District chose Precision Control Systems over a national ESCO as their successful Qualified Provider to retrofit South High School’s entire mechanical and plumbing design.

Reclaiming the existing boiler room space, Precision converted an original steam-to-hot-water system using eight 92% efficient condensing boilers.  Ten new HVAC units featured heat recovery and more efficient cooling approaches including Variable Refrigerant Flow systems and improved chiller efficiencies.  Precision’s team fit over 8,000 feet of new piping into tough-to-access tunnel systems, ceiling areas, and 200 masonry pipe risers.  A new Schneider Electric I/A BAS integrated to the existing Johnson Controls Metasys architecture utilizing LON and BACNET protocols.

By opting to reuse the existing boiler room space rather than building a new boiler house, Precision value engineered cost savings of $600,000 into the project.  The reduced cost and quicker build-out enabled Precision to complete the project during a single 2011 summer break.  Precision’s approach shortened project time from two years to approximately 20 weeks and District 99 was able to cool occupied classrooms and heat the building for the fall and winter seasons.  Precision completed all original work scope within the project’s A/E budget.

Precision worked closely with the District’s architectural and engineering firms while providing a hybrid plan-and-spec and design-build approach, completed under Illinois performance contract law.  Precision received outstanding reviews from the owner, staff and architect, and energy savings exceeded 30% of previous energy consumption levels.