AAON is engaged in the engineering, manufacturing, marketing, and sale of semi-custom heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment (HVAC) for commercial use. AAON is a world leader in creating comfortable and healthy indoor environments, efficiently, through the manufacture of premium HVAC equipment.
Founded in 1988, the company’s broad product portfolio serves both the new construction and replacement markets. AAON, which employs over 1,600 people, has received numerous honors and awards in recognition of product innovation and successful business performance.
AAON’s Tulsa, Oklahoma location, a combination of offices and manufacturing facilities, is one of the largest manufacturing facilities in the region. With over 1.3 million square feet, the company uses a significant amount of power every day. As an example, AAON had been approached with incentives by the local utility company to reduce hours of operation during critical peak periods as a means of avoiding a local brownout situation.
Although unusual for this type of manufacturing space, a T-bar ceiling with white acoustic tiles has been installed across the entire space hiding unsightly pipes, wires, and venting, while also providing a layer of insulation that helps optimize heating and cooling the facility. A total of five different ceiling heights are utilized due to varied equipment and manufacturing requirements.
AAON Chooses Encelium to help reduce energy usage and related operating costs in a challenging multiple ceiling height environments.
Encelium Networked Light Management System was deployed across 1 million square feet of AAON manufacturing space and consists of an Encelium GreenBus communication network, wired and wireless control managers, support units and modules, and occupancy sensors distributed throughout the space.
AAON committed to replacing their traditional fluorescent and metal halide fixtures with 0-10V dimmable LED technology and selected one luminaire for deployment across the entire facility. The ENCELIUM System controls approximately 1500 lighting fixtures installed throughout the facility. The vast majority of fixtures are set up for individual control to minimize rewiring as requirements change. Zonal control is limited due to the requirements of the space.
To accommodate equipment and manufacturing requirements, AAON’s unique space has multiple ceiling heights ranging from 20.5 to 35 feet. Uneven ceiling heights create inconsistent light levels that can be problematic for worker comfort, productivity, and even safety. To create a uniform level of light, the Encelium System groups luminaries located at different ceiling heights into different task tuning levels ranging between 45 and 70% of maximum light output. Task tuning is one of the energy management strategies that AAON is leveraging to significantly reduce energy consumption and related operating expenses while making the space more comfortable for employees.
AAON is also poised to take advantage of greater utility incentives for load shedding. The Encelium System is flexible, enabling AAON to reduce the facility’s energy usage, particularly during system-wide peak demand periods, by dimming or turning off different individual luminaires or zones with the click of a mouse.
Additional energy savings measures employed include occupancy sensors installed to turn off lights when space is unoccupied. In spaces without occupancy sensors, time schedules were implemented that switch the lights off during expected unoccupied periods, requiring user requests to keep the lights on. Daylight sensors are also used for dimming lights down (ambient and task) as daylight increases, with increasing light levels by user requests.
The T-bar white tiled ceilings’ reflectance has added further efficiency to the light fixtures. As an added bonus, the Encelium System is linked to AAON’s existing security cameras via Niagara AX to enhance the security system within the plant.
‘Encelium is flexible and easy to work with. Dashboards report our lighting energy consumption in real-time, and we can make adjustments to specific zones or individual luminaires from a workstation in our main office. Even with all the different ceiling heights in our manufacturing area, we now have consistent lighting where needed which has greatly improved our working environment.’
– Austin Embry, AAON Facility Process Engineer
By implementing specific energy management strategies including task tuning, load shedding, time scheduling, and occupancy sensing, the Encelium System has enabled AAON to reduce its lighting energy consumption by over 60%, an annual operating cost savings of more than $100,000. Working closely with Encelium, AAON was able to garner a one-time custom rebate from its utility company on top of its lighting fixture retrofit rebate. AAON’s return on investment (ROI) for the Encelium System was less than 3.5 years.