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Case Study
ECOAZUR® System at Vassar College, Gordon Commons

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At a Glance
Vassar College, Gordon Commons
  • Case Study
  • Schools & Universities
  • January 2021
The Objective
Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York worked with Kitchen Energy Solutions on their goal to increase energy savings at Gordon Commons dining hall. The challenge presented for this kitchen was due to their multiple hoods being connected to a single exhaust fan and makeup air unit.

Gordon Commons at Vassar College is a stunning all white and stainless dining hall with a modern dining experience. This dining hall contains a main kitchen with two full cooklines, a servery kitchen, kosher kitchen, and three satellite cooking areas. This equates to nine kitchen exhaust hoods on a common fan, and four additional satellite hoods on three additional exhaust fans. The uniqueness of this design is that all thirteen hoods share a common makeup air unit.

Our team was tasked to create a custom DCKV solution for their dining hall, keeping the sharpness of its modern aesthetic while facing challenges with layout and lofted ceilings.

Estimated Preliminary Analysis

Average New Fan Speed50%
Electrical Savings (Kilowatt-Hour/Year)319,871 kWhper Year
Electrical Savings ($/Year)$46,516.00per Year
Heating Savings ($/Year)$26,250.00per Year
Cooling Savings ($/Year)$1,465.00per Year
Payback Timeline1.2 yearsROI

Values below are based on 19 hours of Runtime per Day with a Total Controlled CFM of 38,120 and Total Controlled HP of 75.5.

The Solution
ECOAZUR® was the perfect solution for Gordon Commons dining hall at Vassar College, offering the ability to retrofit modulating dampers on all hoods in combination with the ECOAZUR® optic and temperature sensors, ultimately maximizing the energy savings in their kitchen.

ECOAZUR® was the perfect solution for this large dining hall. One ECOAZUR® processor was able to control the nine hoods retrofitted with optic sensors, temperature sensors and modulating dampers, along with the satellite hoods with optic sensors and temperature sensors. The system takes into account all the exhaust fans CFM, cooking requirements, and sensor information for modulation of the single makeup air unit and control is fully automatic.

Vassar College proves that customization is key to the perfect control in these commercial kitchen spaces.

The Results

Post Installation Analysis

Average New Fan Speed42%- 8%
Electrical Savings (Kilowatt-Hour/Year)351,545 kWh+ 31,674 kWhper Year
Electrical Savings ($/Year)$51,010.00+ $4,494.00per Year
Heating Savings ($/Year)$30,844.00+ $4,594.00per Year
Cooling Savings ($/Year)$1,721.00+ $256.00per Year
Payback Timeline1 year- 0.2 yearsROI

Values below are based on 19 hours of Runtime per Day with a Total Controlled CFM of 38,120 and Total Controlled HP of 75.5.

Simple Payback
0 yr
Vassar College’s DCKV investment was repaid within 1 year
Total Dollars Saved per Year
$0
Combined electrical, heating + cooling savings of $83,575 per year
Average New Fan Speed
0%
Average fan speed decreased from 100% to 42% with ECOAZUR®
CO2 Reduction per Year
0 mil
Yearly carbon dioxide reduction of 4,294,596 lbs

Data Analysis
Discover Vassar College’s kitchen fan speed percentage trend within one week’s time.

100% airflow used only when absolutely needed!
Tremendous amount of savings with a custom design!