United States. The Taco Inc. Innovation and Development Center (IDC), which opened in mid-2012, has been awarded LEED Gold Certification by the US Green Building Council (Usgbc).
The 24,037-square-foot facility, which houses classrooms and meeting rooms for hydronic training and educational purposes, scored 62 points out of a total of 79 possible points for LEED Gold.
The Taco IDC, in addition to its instructional and educational approach to both Taco employees and HVAC industry professionals visiting the facility, was designed to be a showcase for energy saving and sustainable systems and products, which are evident throughout the building for visualization, learning and teaching.
Products and systems installed at the IDC include cooling modules (active and passive), radiant roof cooling and heating, fan coils, water-water heat pumps, perimeter radiation, underfloor heating, solar hot water, radiation snow melting, and geothermal energy.
The goal of the mechanical design was to optimize the design of the hydraulic side and remove/add as much heat as possible using coolant modules, flat screen radiation along the walls of the IDC and underfloor heating systems. All equipment and systems are controlled by Taco's iWorx web-based management product line and controlled by a number of sensors and meters throughout the building.
