Daikin stock chillers provide school money and time-saving solutions

Written by American City & County staff

Issue: Sometimes it takes a less-than-ideal situation to achieve a solution that can provide the best customer outcomes. For example, when Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Tampa, Florida started having difficulties with two of their aging air-cooled chillers, they needed a replacement as soon as possible. As a short-term solution, the school lined up an expensive rental chiller but needed a permanent solution, and quickly. That’s when Daikin came to the rescue.

“We work with the Hillsborough County school district very often,” said Daikin Applied Account Executive Ruben Colon. “Their existing chillers were at the end of life and they called one of our competitors for a rental. A few days later the customer called and asked me if I could stop by the school and give them a quote to replace the two ALR model McQuay
chillers. I looked at our stock program and found two Trailblazer® AGZ-E 100 ton chillers
ready for delivery.”

Solution: That turned out to be a smart call on the customer’s part, as the Daikin solution ended up saving them both time and money. “The whole process would have taken four to five months by the time the chiller was replaced,” explained Colon. “In the meantime, they’re paying five months of rental, which could be another $60,000 total.”

Colon spoke to school officials about their options under Daikin’s cooperative contract made available through OMNIA Partners, Public Sector (Subsidiaries National IPA)—a program that assists government and public entities in procuring HVAC solutions and other advanced technology services. “I presented the project under our cooperative contract and they agreed
to move on the chillers,” said Colon. “It was a commonsense solution that gave them what they needed, at the time they needed, saving them time and money with minimal disruption to school.” The officials at Woodrow Wilson Middle School also appreciated the ready availability of Daikin’s extensive inventory. Colon and his team had previously replaced two cooling towers at a local high school, so their reputation for quality work and a quick turnaround was already established. “For Wilson we were able to find both chillers in stock right away. They were very impressed with that.”

Outcome: On the whole, the Woodrow Wilson project turned out to be a success for everyone involved, from both a financial and customer satisfaction standpoint. “We were able to save them money on procurement, labor hours, and chiller rental cost,” said Colon. “They wound up having a rental there for only about three weeks. The rental company wasn’t happy that they weren’t able to keep the chiller there for five months as they used to”. Colon concludes.

Daikin was awarded a national cooperative contract by Region 4 Education Service Center, which is made available through OMNIA Partners, Public Sector.

Contract #R150505– HVAC Equipment, Installation, Service and Related Services.

To learn more, Visit OMNIAPartners.com/PublicSector