Everything about the Johnny Janosik World of Furniture is on a grand scale--except for the electric bills.
This 221,000-sq.-ft. showroom/warehouse facility was developed on 12 acres in Laurel, DE, as the flagship store for a family-owned, multi-store retail furniture business. Customers drive in from hundreds of miles away to shop at the brightly illuminated showroom with galleries devoted to 50 manufacturers. The cooling requirement for this massive retail environment had a major influence on the design of the HVAC system that features superbly insulated roof and wall construction combined with a sophisticated industrial refrigeration system that saves the retailer $150,000 per year in utility costs. During winter, the high-efficiency gas boilers for heating the facility rarely operate because of retained heat load off the massive showroom’s lighting.
The Whayland Company, Inc., a Butler Builder® based in Delmar, Delaware served as the owner’s program consultant and construction manager. The responsibilities included recommending George, Miles & Buhr, LLC, of Lewes, DE, as the project architect; the specifications applied to the roof and wall assemblies; and the HVAC systems contractor.
It could be said that this was a project designed from the inside out.
The merchandising concept for the superstore would generate an exceptional cooling load which led Bob Wheatley, the Butler Builder, to carefully research HVAC alternatives for long-term operating efficiency. M&M Refrigeration, located in Federalsburg, MD, eventually joined the project team as the critical HVAC design/contractor.
M&M recommended a system that uses ammonia rather than Freon as the coolant media. Ammonia systems are more environmentally friendly than Freon systems in the event of leaks and the highly efficient refrigerant requires only 50 to 60 percent of the energy required by a conventional Freon-type technology. The amount of electricity saved every year equates to eliminating a million pounds of CO2 emissions a year at the utility’s coal-fired power plant. The system, which is safely isolated outside of the showroom, features 25 individually controlled zones. The control and monitoring system supplied by M&M is user-friendly and operates off a centralized PC in the building, with redundant monitoring and control at M&M’s offices. The password-secured system also can be accessed from any other computer via a telephone modem.
The Whayland Company applied a custom Landmark™ 2000 structural system with MR-24® standing seam metal roof system and Koreteck® panelized wall panels as the underlayment for a synthetic stucco exterior finish. The MR-24 roof assembly achieved R-38 from the ThermaLiner™ insulation system that incorporates 12” of uncompressed fiberglass batt between a steel liner panel and the metal roof system’s seamed panels. The 6”-thick Koreteck panels delivered R-24.8 to complement the insulating values of the MR-24 roof and ThermaLiner insulation method. Interior finishes were applied over drywall affixed directly to the inside face of the 1800 lineal feet of Koreteck panels that an eight-man crew erected in only nine days. Because the panelized system lacks any organic content or voids where moisture can accumulate, the Koreteck walls remain immune to mold and even insect infestation. The panelized wall system has other “green” features gained from the expanded polystyrene insulation barrier that is molded onto both faces of a corrugated steel sheet.
The store demonstrated its cooling efficiency throughout the summer. On August 8, 2006, for example, temperatures in the parking lot reached 103-deg. F. at 2 p.m. The temperature in the store held between 72 to 75-deg F., a differential of only 3 degrees F over the 180,000-sq.-ft. footprint.
To learn more about Koreteck products and systems, call 866-877-8335, or go to www.koreteck.com.