Cogeneration Archives | Controlled Air, Inc.

CHP Installation, Norwalk CT | The Maritime Aquarium Center

Karnold@controlledair.com — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 12:22:38 +0000

The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk recently worked with Controlled Air, inc, to improve their energy efficiency and reliability, we installed a Tedom CHP unit.

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems offer significant benefits for aquariums, addressing their substantial and continuous energy demands for maintaining precise environmental conditions. Here are the key advantages:

High Energy Efficiency: Aquariums require consistent heating, cooling, and electricity for life support systems (pumps, filters, lighting). Traditional methods often waste a significant amount of heat during electricity generation. CHP systems, by producing both electricity and useful thermal energy from a single fuel source, can achieve overall efficiencies of 65% to 80%.
Reduced Operating Costs: Due to their high efficiency, CHP systems require less fuel to produce the same amount of energy (electricity and heat). This directly translates to lower energy bills and can lead to substantial cost savings, potentially offsetting energy expenses by 20% to 50%.
Enhanced Reliability and Resiliency: Maintaining stable water temperatures and continuous power for pumps and filtration is critical for the health and survival of aquatic life. CHP systems provide on-site generation, which means aquariums can operate independently or in parallel with the grid. This enhances energy reliability and resiliency, ensuring critical functions continue even during grid outages or disruptions, protecting valuable marine specimens.
Environmental Benefits: By maximizing the use of fuel and avoiding transmission and distribution losses associated with grid electricity, CHP systems reduce overall fuel consumption. This leads to a significant decrease in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), as well as other air pollutants like nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO2), contributing to decarbonization efforts.

Learn more About Cogeneration (CHP)

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Microgrid, Middletown CT | Middletown Recreation Center

Controlled Air Inc. — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 14:52:17 +0000

Middletown Recreation Center Embraces a Resilient and Sustainable Future with a New Microgrid

In a significant step towards energy independence and sustainability, the Middletown Recreation Center has completed the installation of a new microgrid system. This project is a cornerstone of the city’s broader efforts to modernize its infrastructure and ensure the community’s safety and comfort, particularly during extreme weather events.

The new recreation center, built on the former site of the Woodrow Wilson Middle School, is not only a hub for community activities with renovated gyms and pools but also serves a vital role as a designated heating and cooling center during power outages. The microgrid is the key to this resilience, allowing the facility to operate independently of the main power grid.

The system is a complex, hybrid energy solution designed and engineered by Clarke Energy in collaboration with other partners. Controlled Air, Inc. worked with Clarke Energy to create an energy-efficient solution that integrated a Yanmar combined heat and power (CHP) unit and a Yanmar gas heat pump (GHP) system. The core of the microgrid is the 35kW CHP unit, which provides both electricity and high-efficiency hot water for showers and the pool. This is complemented by a solar photovoltaic (PV) array that generates renewable electricity, with a battery energy storage system (BESS) to save surplus energy for later use. A backup gas-fueled generator from Kohler provides an additional layer of resilience, ensuring the facility can remain powered for extended periods.

This innovative system is designed to provide both parallel power during normal operation and “island mode” capability during a grid outage. The entire system is managed by a centralized microgrid controller, which optimizes the different energy sources for maximum efficiency and reliability. The project is expected to reduce the center’s carbon dioxide emissions by 192 tons per year, aligning with the city’s goals for a more sustainable future.

The Middletown Recreation Center microgrid is an excellent example of how communities can invest in infrastructure that not only serves their daily needs but also provides critical support in emergencies. It represents a forward-thinking approach to energy management, combining sustainability with an unwavering commitment to public safety and resilience.

The Middletown Recreation Center’s new system is fully protected by a 20-year parts and labor contract. Controlled Air and Yanmar are committed to providing a reliable, long-term, and energy-efficient solution by guaranteeing dedicated parts and service for the equipment.

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CHP Installation, Southington CT | YMCA

Controlled Air Inc. — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 14:44:38 +0000

SOUTHINGTON YMCA

Controlled Air installed a Yanmar cogeneration system in coordination with a new boiler plant and domestic hot water production to reduce energy costs for the Southington YMCA. Our work included the mechanical demolition and removal of existing oil tanks, boilers, domestic hot water tanks, and remaining equipment from the previous co-generation system. At the heart of the new system, we furnished and installed two 35kW Yanmar high-performance CHP systems with the ability to produce a total of 70kw of power for the facility and hot water to be used in the production of heat and domestic hot water. These systems incorporate a heat exchanger, with a glycol-based system for heat recovery. To increase the efficiency of the new system, we replaced the old, worn-out boilers with two high-efficiency Patterson Kelley Storm ST-2000, 2,000,000 BTU, gas-fired condensing boilers equipped with a BACnet interface.

These new boilers will significantly increase efficiency, while working in conjunction with the Yanmar CHPs to produce domestic hot water and heating at the most efficient rate. We also installed new circulating pumps, associated pump specialties, and the necessary gas piping to the new equipment. To control the system, we installed a new Johnson Controls BMS system to operate the heat exchanger, radiators, boilers, and the cogeneration system.

Yanmar Cogeneration Systems offer significant advantages. By simultaneously generating both electricity and heat, they achieve high energy efficiency, reducing energy costs and environmental impact. The YMCA can lower their reliance on the grid, improving energy security and reducing vulnerability to price fluctuations.

Learn more about cogeneration (CHP)

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Cogeneration (CHP) Naugatuck CT | Naugatuck High School

Controlled Air Inc. — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 18:20:28 +0000

A recent article in Combined Heat and Power Magazine highlighted an energy project at Naugatuck High School. Controlled Air Inc. worked with Advanced Energy Efficiencies to develop a cogeneration installation that will provide 140 kW of electrical power and 820,000 Btus of hot water supply.

Advanced Energy Efficiencies put together a highlight video giving a brief overview of what was accomplished in the project and explained how solar and CHP can make a great team to lower energy costs.

#CHP #cogeneration #energyefficiency #solar
Check Out Page 6 In the Magazine

Read more on YANMAR CHP here

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Cogeneration Waterbury CT | Fascia’s Chocolate

Controlled Air Inc. — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 16:49:43 +0000

Fascia’s Chocolates is a family owned chocolate company located in Waterbury CT. They have been in existence since 1964 and have been winners of multiple awards. As they have grown and their energy demands have increased they decided to make improvements to their existing facility.

Advanced Energy Efficiencies and Controlled Air Inc. worked together to create a high efficiency system using YANMAR gas powered GHP. Prior to installation calculations were done to determine the best system and estimated energy savings. After 7 months running the system has performed even better than expected. Check back soon for more information.

Watch the video below for more information.

Learn More about our Cogeneration Solutions

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Greenhouse Gas Emissions Savings

Controlled Air Inc. — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 02:54:38 +0000

Controlled Air, Inc, is an active member of CHP EPA Partnership. Each year we submit information about the CHP/Cogeneration project that we complete. In 2015 our six CHP projects have avoided emissions of an estimated 5,720 metric tons of carbon dioxide, compared to conventional energy sources. This includes 2015 avoided emissions of more than 1,490 metric tons, equal to that from the generation of electricity used annually by 205 homes.

We exceeded 2014’s figures by 1,500 metric tons!

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Learn More about Cogeneration

Controlled Air Inc. — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 05:04:36 +0000

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Northern Middlesex County YMCA Cogeneration Installation

Controlled Air Inc. — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 14:46:48 +0000

Controlled Air, Inc. furnished and installed a Tecogen CM-75 Cogeneration system with a hospital grade silencer and power exhaust ventilator at the Middlesex YMCA.

The projections were as follows:

2.05 year Return On Investment (ROI)
Yearly Savings of 624,150 kWh
Approximate Annual Energy savings of $146,147.35
Cogeneration would produce 3.76 Billion BTU’s of heat, and 600,000KWH of electricity per year

The project was completed in 2012 and we have been monitoring energy usage and production. The Cogeneration system has been better then projected! The system has reduced oil consumption by 20,000 gals per year, as well as saving over $127,000 in electricity costs. On average the Cogeneration system is producing 1,800 kWh of electricity per day. This is a huge reduction in cost and energy for the YMCA.

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Cogeneration, Branford CT | Soundview YMCA

Controlled Air Inc. — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:36:05 +0000

The New Soundview YMCA will be a great addition to the Branford community offering 2 pools, cardio, weights, teen center, and aerobics. They will have a high energy demand in order to heat 2 pools 24 hours per day, as well as hot water for showers, and running a dehumidifier. Controlled Air is installing a cogeneration system and a custom air handling unit with a dehumidifier that will save 360,000 kWh per year with a little over a 3 year ROI.

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Cogeneration & Trigeneration, Fairfield CT | Fairfield Police Station

Controlled Air Inc. — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 15:35:03 +0000

We installed a new TecoGen CM-50 50 kW gas fired Cogeneration unit. We also furnished and installed gas lines, make-up water lines, radiator piping, hot water piping, heat exchanger, circulators, and electrical conduit to make the cogeneration operational and running efficiently. We updated the controls system with wiring to integrate the cogeneration system into the existing Johnson Controls Energy Management System and installed a New Yazaki 20-ton chiller and AMCOT ST-60 cooling tower.

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