About Peggy
From her dad’s garage in 1979, little did Peggy Allen Parker know, 30 years later she would be starting her third business. The decline of the oilfield industry a few years later forced Parker to explore other avenues that led her to an industrial customer base. Parker’s experience as a certified woman-owned business gave her a vision for diversity and expansion. This was a huge step for Parker, but as a woman of faith, she knew it was the right thing to do in order for her growing business to flourish. Expanding in 2005, Action Machining and Pump Service, Inc. was birthed.
Stepping out on faith for a third time in 2009, Parker opened Allen’s Industrial Refrigeration Service, Inc. (A.I.R.S). Amazingly, the three companies accent each other.
Parker’s three companies are centrally located in a 50,000 square foot facility. This facility is the newest and one of the largest state of the art facilities in Louisiana. The “A-Team” prides itself for being recognized by its customers for being a “clean” facility, coincidentally, perhaps, because it is woman-owned.
Allen’s Industrial Refrigeration Service, Inc.
In 2009, Allen’s Electric decided to take an extra step with the business to form Allen’s Industrial Refrigeration Service, Inc. This new division of the business was started on a conversation with Mark Jowers, Billy Young and Peggy Allen Parker.
After working for years in the industry as part of York International, Mark Jowers and Billy Young approached Peggy about starting a chiller service organization. Peggy had been working with different chiller service groups for years preforming vibration analysis, motor alignment and motor repairs. Starting up A.I.R.S just seemed like a compliment to the other businesses that we had.
Mark, Billy and Peggy agreed to work up a business plan to see how things would work out financially. After agreeing on a business plan they approached the bank with the plan and a list of customers for references. The start-up went very well and became profitable very quickly.
We believe by providing a professional service that puts our customers first and offering superior products is the secret to business longevity. During the first couple of years of being in business we found our customers coming to us asking for us to provide equipment to them. They were looking for something different instead of the traditional equipment that was available. So, when we were looking for a manufacturer to partner with, we were looking for someone that had the latest technologies in energy efficiency, reliable, and factory support.
After taking several months to research the different equipment manufacturers that might meet our needs, we signed a MegLev Retrofit Agreement with Multistack Manufacturing. Multistack was formed in 1989 and is known for their Modular Chiller Designs and their Energy Savings Technologies. The MegLev Retrofit Agreement allowed us to promote Multistack equipment and perform equipment retrofits on chillers that have reliable condensers and evaporators, but had costly motor or compressor failures. If you have to change out the chiller, it would be quite costly by having to remove walls or cut out ceilings. By installing the MegLev Turbo Core Oil Less Compressors and the FlexSys Control System we have reduced our customer energy cost up to 40 percent.
After several successful projects installing New Multistack Chillers at Advantage Health Care in Monroe, Domtar Paper Mill in Ashdown, Ar., Clearwater Paper Mill in McGehee, Ar. and a retrofit on an existing York Chiller at the Bossier Court House. A.I.R.S entered in an agreement with Multistack to become the North and Central Louisiana Representative for Multistack.
In interviewing Denny Chamberlain who is the Southeast Regional Sales Manager on why Multistack chooses to add A.I.R.S to its list of manufacturer’s reps he said “It quickly became apparent A.I.R.S had the local relationships, the technical competence and the organizational infrastructure to be a successful rep for Multistack. Their motor and pump businesses provided synergy, name recognition and a customer base that would allow them to quickly ramp up their Multistack business.”
Early on in the process after becoming a Multistack MegLev Representative, A.I.R.S started sending its technicians to Sparta, Wisconsin for a weeklong factory training session. The training covered the complete operation of the Multistack Chiller.
“When you go to the training they teach you about the MegLev Compressor and how it operates and the programming of it,” Jowers said, “They teach you about how the FlexSys Controls and how they integrate with the compressor controls.
Jowers said he takes pride in the value of service that his technicians have received. “We are factory-trained and our technicians are available 24 hours a day and seven days a week.”
Not only are the technicians available to handle service needs, but we work with the businesses through the whole process of installing and training employees on each product.
“We are not only going to sell you the equipment, we are going to provide the training and service,” Jowers said. “It stays with us. We provide your warranty needs, place of training, parts and service. We are running the whole gamut.”
Some of the most unique features of the Multistack product line: Energy Diversity - MegLev compressors attain optimum efficiency while operating at part load. This creates an operational strategy to run multiple compressors at part-load—for as long as possible—to achieve the lowest kW/Ton. This proprietary adaptive control logic allows a 450 ton chiller to provide as little as 40 to 50 tons of off-hour cooling at .33kW/Ton.
Functional Diversity - Redundancy in a chiller system is important—but often overlooked due to cost restraints. For the first time multiple MegLev compressors mounted on a common shell
now offers a new form of functional diversity previously beyond to budget considerations of most cooling projects—redundancy.
Additionally, traditional large tonage centrifugal chillers become inefficient below 50% capacity.
The standard fix is the installation of a costly, fairly inefficient after hours chiller. MagLev flooded chillers are designed with multiple, VFD driven MegLev Compressors that cost effectively and efficiently provide the functional diversity of an after-hours chiller – without the cost of a separate system.
Operational Diversity - in the unlikely event that you would have a compressor failure, the other compressors will continue to operate until the downed compressor is brought back into service. If one compressor does fail and needs replacing, it can be accomplished by (2) technicians without the necessity for cranes or specialized rigging equipment.
Multistack also offers very efficient Dedicated Heat Recovery Chiller (DHRC) that will allow our customer’s to lower their overall energy cost according to Jeff Lee with A.I.R.S. During the process of cooling, heat is generated and more often discarded to the atmosphere. Buildings can use two times more energy to do the cooling and dispose of the heat, as if they just took possession of the heat and using that heat where it is needed. Even in the middle of summer, most buildings require a certain amount of heat to be made for proper humidity control, potable hot water, and many other hot water applications. Heat recovery addresses this waste and turns it into a way to lower energy bills, reduce the carbon footprint of the building and will provide tremendous improvement for the overall building efficiency. Currently, the requirement for LEED is to improve upon ASHRE 90.1 by up to 30%. A DHRC can help you get there.
To associate some dollars saved to this concept, the 45-ton DHRC installed upstream of the condensing boilers at Evansville State Hospital in Evansville, Indiana. Designed to satisfy all the VAV reheating and the domestic hot water—while supplementing the cooling load—the DHRC is having a significant impact on the utility cost of the hospital by saving $36,000.00 - $54,000.00 per year, depending on the cost of natural gas. To see this case study, and others check out Multistack’s website at, www.multistack.com Another couple of reasons that building owners might choose Multistack MegLev Chillers Jeff wanted to point out. (1) Is that starting amps of these chillers is only 1.6 amps, which allows emergency generators to be sized to handle the full load amperage, instead of in rush amperage. Thus lowering the price of installing emergency generators. (2) Where sound is an issue the Multistack Chillers are among the best in the industry.
For maximum redundancy and reliability dual electronic expansion values are standard. This product is also designed with a 100 percent oil free design that further saves on operating and maintenance costs.
The overview of the water-cooled flooded chillers presents impressive points: There is a single point of electrical connection, along with individual breakers, isolated control power feeds, factory mounted differential pressure transmitters, compressor hub system, and a FlexSys control system with 15-inch touch screen.
The MagLev FlexSys controller includes these unique software features:
• built-in web interface provides full remote control including fault notification via email • on-board DTC software eliminates the need for a service technician to carry a portable computing device • full BAS connectivity including Modbus, BacNet and Lon • Windows operating system can fail and the chilled will continue to run on built-in redundant software The software in the FlexSys control system works in conjunction with the compressor hubs creating the next generation of chiller control. Most control systems look at leaving water temperature with a single PID loop and convert this into a single demand sign that is applied to all compressors. This affects loading characteristics of the chiller.
A.I.R.S has received positive feedback from their customers in offering Multistack products and service. Customers report saving a lot of money on electricity costs and are happy with the level of service provided by Allen’s Electric.
Some of A.I.R.S notable customers are Vantage Health in Monroe, CenterPoint Energy, Samson Industries, the Caddo Parish Commission and some other buildings located in downtown Shreveport.
PAGE 48 THE FORUM/December 11, 2013
400 Roy Hoppy Hopkins Drive, Vivian LA.
