Chiller Man

Al Shirawi US Chillers clinched the ‘Specialist Contractor of the Year’ title at the 2007 and 2008 MEP Awards. Managing partner Dan Mizesko talks about the challenge of inculcating a maintenance culture in the chiller industry.

Can you give us some background on the company in the region?

US Chiller Services International is an independent, large-tonnage chiller service organisation that specialises in the service, repair, retrofit and modernisation of liquid chillers from all manufacturers. US Chiller Services was established in 1975 by a group of industry experts from Carrier, Trane, York, McQuay, Honeywell, Siemens and the Bechtel Construction Company. These industry professionals formed a nationwide service organisation with technical capabilities and synergies that were far superior to the service offerings by any of the manufacturers.

In 2001, US Chillers made a strategic decision, and agreed to bring its expertise and resources to the Middle East and Gulf region to fill the service void. The company is called Al Shirawi US Chillers LLC. This meant that, for the first time in the Middle East, professional large-tonnage chiller specialist services were available, all performed and supervised by US and British service engineers who are industry- and factory-certified by all the major chiller manufacturers.

Customers have the benefit of knowing our engineers are certified, and this is a real value, but what makes this so powerful is the culture of the organisation in that it is mandatory that all engineers on any service or response must follow the industry, factory and EPA guidelines and specifications. In addition, our engineers carry the service tool which allows us to upload all chiller operating parameters, and e-mail these off to other engineers for analysis and peer-review diagnosis. This allows us to inform the engineers which service literature or factory bulletins to access on our employee Web site for further relevant service information. These allow us to be proactive and 100% current and up to date on the operating conditions of the chillers, and apply the proper services for the utmost equipment reliability and efficiency. No other service organisation approaches the liquid chiller service segment in such a proactive and professional fashion.

US Chillers’ whole organisation, including our energy engineering department, is completely committed and focused on providing and supporting the Middle East and Gulf region with the most highly-advanced services and solutions available in the HVACR industry, at fair and honest prices.

We work for, and look out for, the interests of our customers, and not the manufacturers.

What was the strategy behind establishing the company here?

The reasoning was rather straightforward. US Chillers recognised that the large-tonnage chiller services being provided in the region were very poor at best. We decided to bring our expertise to the region to fill this huge void. To be quite frank, we are very proud that we have, in fact, raised awareness in this region that the equipment end-users are no longer dependent on the OEM for service, and that a superior alternative is available at competitive pricing and with the best interests of the end user in mind, not the manufacturer.

What main products and services does it offer?

Our custom technical support programs include preventive and predictive maintenance agreements, as well as our exclusive chiller energy diagnostic software support program, which can guarantee chillers run at design kW per ton at full load, and even more efficiently at part-load conditions. In addition, we also offer our exclusive comprehensive chiller assurance programs.

The latter is the ideal way for a facility to budget yearly chiller maintenance and repair cost. For one fixed monthly rate, we guarantee the proper operation of your chillers, completely eliminating expensive emergency repair costs. If a component within the chiller fails, we provide all the necessary parts and labour to repair or replace it, at no additional cost. Component replacement will be not be undertaken if worn, broken or not within the manufacturer’s or industry specifications.

This program ensures equipment life will be prolonged, as well as continuous modernisation of equipment, without additional capital expenditure. In addition, efficiency of the operating equipment will increase and the facility will have guaranteed accountability. Our exclusive coverage will also reduce equipment lifecycle cost, as equipment replacement budgets can be redirected and used in other areas.

US Chillers will be responsible for all maintenance, repairs, parts and emergency service on covered equipment. Under this blanket coverage, you are guaranteed that we will maintain your chiller in optimum operating condition. We also offer full plant operation/maintenance/service and energy agreements for larger cooling plants and the district cooling industry in general.

Not only can we identify where and how your electricity is being used, but we can solve many of the problems that contribute to inefficient electrical distribution systems and high electricity bills.

Once our solutions are installed, they begin to deliver immediate, non-stop savings.

You will realise a decrease in energy consumption during the entire time your facility is operating. Even more impressive, our systems and solutions take advantage of passive technology, meaning that neither you nor your staff will have to remember to turn the system on or off, and no complicated programming and control upgrades will be required. We save you money when your equipment is up and running.

Can you tell us a bit about your trained service personnel?

Along with the most advanced technology, our service engineers are the most experienced and highly trained in the industry. If you want service engineers who are industry-certified and factory-trained by all the major manufacturers, US Chillers can provide them. All our engineers receive ongoing training direct from factories in the US, as well as local training by our engineers on a ‘coach-the-coach/peer-to-peer’ basis.

In other words, when an engineer goes off to receive training from, let us say, ASHRAE or the Refrigeration Engineers’ Society, he brings this knowledge back to our engineers and shares the training with them as a refresher course. No one knows chillers better than a US Chillers field service engineer.

Our organisation also receives training programs from the MCAA and the ACCA, which are both leaders in the training of service engineers in the US. When people need expert service engineers to repair their equipment, they count on US Chillers field service engineers. That is the bottom line of our business.

We provide engineering and consultative services that are targeted at providing solutions to the customer and the equipment user, not the equipment manufacturer. US Chiller Services will always provide an independent and unbiased recommendation on services, repairs and new equipment selection.

How advanced is the maintenance industry in the UAE?

I feel the liquid chiller service industry is far behind in this region, the reason being that, before 2001, everyone had to rely on the OEM or its agents for chiller services, and had to pay whatever the cost, and wait however long for service, as this was a monopoly market. This is no longer the case.

Are customers paying more attention to maintenance so as to cut overall costs?

I have found that customers always value maintenance. However, their expectations were always very low. US Chillers brings you the most advanced technology available in the industry. If your equipment fails unexpectedly, you face downtime and potentially inconvenienced occupants. With predictive maintenance, you will know about potential problems before breakdowns occur. This will afford you the ability to schedule repairs before they become more costly – and at times when they will not inconvenience you or your building occupants.

Using today’s best testing tools and technologies, we can discover or rule out virtually any kind of hidden system problem. As a result, we can help:
• Find, identify and correct minor problems inexpensively before they lead to more complex and expensive repairs;
• Avoid needless downtime and inconvenience or discomfort to occupants;
• Ensure continued production when equipment is used in process applications;
• Control energy cost;
• Prolong equipment life, thereby deferring replacement cost, and
• Prevent overtime cost for expensive unscheduled repairs.

Predictive maintenance is key to optimal building systems management. With this you can make the most informed decisions and achieve the lowest overall operating cost. Some of the predictive services we offer are vibration analysis, thermographic testing, eddy current testing, water/oil/refrigerant analysis performed by an independent US laboratory, motor insulation testing, ultrasonic flow analysis, chiller performance and energy analysis.

What are some of the main maintenance or service-related issues you come across regularly?

To be quite honest, the most common things we find are that chillers have not been correctly commissioned and started to factory specifications, and are maintained at these same poor standards.

This puts the end user – whether it be a district cooling utility or a building owner – behind the eight ball, so to speak, from day one, and it is downhill from there in terms of energy and reliability.

Our commissioning, decommissioning, continuous commissioning and retro-commissioning are premised on the core philosophy that we can assure the end user and owners of the facility that the chillers are operating as per design from the moment we perform our services. I can assure you this is not the case on almost 100% of the chillers we have come across in the region; but this holds true as well in the US, South America and worldwide.

A survey report by the San Diego State University Energy Engineering Institute on 31 chiller plant sites across the US found that chillers which should have been operating in a range of from 0.65 to 1.00 kW/ton, according to the OEM specifications, were often actually operating at 1.5 to 3.0 kW/ton, and that most chiller plant operators had no idea how well their chiller plants were performing.

A survey report on 14 plants by the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance found a substantial variation in chiller energy efficiency, ranging from 0.55 to 1.80 kW/ton. A report by the California Energy Commission stated that buildings and chilled water central plants invariably do not perform as well in practice as anticipated during design. The main reasons for this were found to be improper equipment selection and installation, poor feedback on operational performance and energy performance and lack of rigorous commissioning and proper maintenance.

What we have found in this region is that water-cooled electric centrifugal chillers are generally selected and designed to operate in the range of 0.687 to 0.760 kW/per ton. We looked at 2003 to 2009 operational data, ranging from newly-constructed and commissioned plants to five-year-old plants, as well as chillers up to five years old. All were electric-driven centrifugal plants. We determined that the operating range of these chillers, before chiller diagnostics, corrective service procedures and chiller optimisation strategies were applied, was between 0.98 to 1.8 kW/per ton. Of the chillers that these services and strategies were applied to by US Chiller Services, the kW/per ton is now 0.513 ~ 0.759.

Maintenance is a critical part of energy efficiency. Are you finding a growing awareness of maintenance strategies?

Unfortunately, I am not finding the awareness for maintenance or operational strategies for ‘green’ issues being addressed with the urgency and importance that they should be afforded. It is unfortunate that the majority of the end users feel that if they have a BMS, energy management or facility control system installed, they have achieved an acceptable ‘green’ solution. The fact of the matter is that a proactive recommissioning, predictive and preventative maintenance program on the chillers will save more money than most any other ‘green’ solution available.

The chillers account for the bulk of the energy consumption. Unless the chillers are, first and foremost, operating in peak condition, huge amounts of kWh and associated money is being wasted, which no control system can correct. The priority for district cooling, building owners, shopping malls or any industry or facility that has liquid chillers has to be proactive professional chiller services and maintenance being applied, so the kWh achieved and attendant money savings become the biggest contributor to the region’s sustainability goals.

Any new developments at the company?

We have introduced two energy-saving and/or water-saving solutions that save substantial quantities of water, energy and eliminate condenser chemicals.

What are your biggest opportunities and challenges at present?

Our biggest opportunities are in educating any and all facilities managers to understand the vast amounts of energy that chillers consume, and how much potential savings are available to them at no additional investment. US Chiller Services can achieve these savings with one of our custom-designed service technical support programs, without any capital investment, as it can be paid out of the operational budget.

In most, or all, instances we are lower in cost than our competitors. Without a doubt, the cost is less than an in-house service, and our savings will be realised immediately. Our biggest challenges are complacency, facilities thinking they are receiving good service on their chillers either outside or in-house and not realising they are not really getting what they deserve, and who are willing to go along consuming excessive energy and not really knowing they are doing so.

What is your outlook for the future?

I by no means can predict the future of the industry or the economy, and as the past year-and-a-half has proven, neither can the so-called experts. The global downturn caught everyone by surprise; I am sure the recovery will as well.