Medical Arts Building in Rochester NY is a 9 story, 60,000 sq. ft. of retail, office and residential mix-use development. As originally designed, the building used steam convectors for heating, and had no building-wide means for cooling.

Starting in 2003, the building underwent a comprehensive renovation. One of the objectives was to make the building as energy efficient as possible, and obtain LEED certification.

Energy Concepts was responsible for all aspects of the M.E.P. design. The innovative HVAC system (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) centers around a water source heat pump geothermal system. This system uses the Earth's constant temperature as a heat sink to cool the building in the summer, and a heat source to heat it in winter. There is no fuel-fired boiler for heating, and there's no evaporative tower for cooling.

The system is a closed loop that circulates, by duplex pumps in parallel, a propylene glycol solution as the heat transfer fluid. The loop uses 35,000 feet of 1" high density polyethylene tubing in 72 wells that are 245 feet deep. The SEERs of the installed heat pumps were between 14 and 16. The heat transfer fluid temperatures vary between 42-78°F over the last heating and cooling seasons.

Energy Concepts also provided Design/Build construction documents for the plumbing, fire protection, and electrical systems as well as residential ductwork layouts. Plumbing and fire protection scope included domestic hot and cold water, sanitary drainage, storm drainage, medical gas, and wet-type sprinkler systems incorporating a diesel fire pump.

Electrical design includes new building service entrance and central distribution equipment, the interconnection of a diesel-powered emergency generator, as well as tenant metering and fire alarm system.

The owners and tenants of this state-of-the-art, highly energy-efficient building enjoys significantly reduced utility and maintenance costs. Mother Earth enjoys the sizable reduction of the carbon footprint.