With roughly 2,700 YMCA locations in the United States today, there’s no shortage of facilities and infrastructure for the organization to maintain, especially considering its desire to maintain the smallest environmental footprint possible.

Waterbury YMCA, in Waterbury, Conn., is a prime example. The facility has undergone many renovations and additions over the years; however, the mechanical systems that served it were disjointed and inefficient.

The 80,000 square-foot building houses two pools, a hot tub, wellness center, gymnasium, classrooms and several locker rooms. A pair of oil-fired steam boilers with steam-to-water heat exchangers were the sole source of heat. The boilers ran almost continuously.  

In 2015, the YMCA received funding from an Office of Policy and Management Non-Profit Grant Program to install a 75 kW, gas-fired co-gen system to reduce oil consumption while providing a large portion of the facility’s electric needs.  

“Paul Marciniak, commercial HVAC business manager at Edgerton Heating & Air Conditioning led the installation,” says Mike Tedesco, director of operations at the Greater Waterbury YMCA. “Paul has been involved with maintenance and improvements here for 15 years.”

When the co-gen system was installed, it replaced one of the two large steam boilers. The second boiler remained in place for partial heating capacity. Management knew that the 30-year-old boiler would soon need to be replaced. When that time came in 2023, Tedesco and Marciniak consulted with engineer Ken Hipsky, vice president at RZ Design Associates.  

“I’d recently seen the new AMP condensing boiler, made by Thermal Solutions,” says Hipsky. “Typically, I don’t specify brand new products. I’d prefer to let new products prove themselves first, but there were a number of things that I liked about the AMP. First, it fit the existing pad. Based on the layout of the mechanical room, frontal service access was a big benefit. The boiler seemed simple, the control screen was user-friendly, and Thermal Solutions has a great reputation in the industry.”  

There were other considerations, too. Access to the underground boiler room was severely limited. The only way to replace the existing boiler was through a grate in the sidewalk, so physical size was a factor.

“We’d used the grate before,” says Marciniak. “Material is raised and lowered through the sidewalk with a small crane. Even at 2 million BTU/h, we didn’t have to break down the AMP to fit it through. Bringing the old boiler back out was a different story.”

Both the sidewalk grate and the dimensions of the mechanical room itself came into consideration while specifying the boiler, adds Hipsky. “Some boilers are too tall, especially those with overhead service access. The horizontal configuration of the AMP really worked in our favor.”

A Phased Approach

The boiler replacement required a phased approach. The existing boiler remained online while the new high efficiency boiler was installed. Careful design and execution were needed to conserve physical space within the mechanical room.  

“We’re big believers in condensing technology,” says Marciniak. “That said, the control platforms on some commercial condensing boilers tend to be complicated. That wasn’t the case with the AMP. The control is the most user-friendly display I’ve come across.”

The new boiler is a supplementary source of heat for every load in the building. The co-gen system provides the first stage of heat. This includes many zones of fin-tube baseboard, the pool and spa, and domestic hot water (DHW). A large, high-temp primary loop serves the space heating zones, while heat exchangers are used to isolate the aquatic zones. 

On the DHW side, Waterbury YMCA has 32 individual showers. To supply sufficient DHW volume, two, 250-gallon storage tanks serve as a heat sink for the co-gen system via a large heat exchanger. When the DHW load exceeds the input of the co-gen system, supplemental capacity is provided by the AMP boiler through the use of two H2O Max instantaneous, indirect-fired water heaters. All components of the system are integrated with a Schnieder building automation system.

The mechanical work was managed by Edgerton’s senior project manager, Wally Zinn, who’s been at the firm for over 30 years. Four technicians were onsite for most of the 55-day project. 

“Quantifying fuel savings down to the dollar is difficult with fluctuating oil, gas and power costs,” says Tedesco. “But I can say that with the addition of the co-gen system and AMP boiler, we’ve cut our annual energy expense by roughly $30,000. Plus, we’ve eliminated the use of fuel oil entirely.

“Oil prices are more volatile than gas or power, so budgeting has been simplified,” he adds. “Also, there are far fewer emergency maintenance expenses. As the other systems in the building are upgraded, we expect the benefits to continue.”