A+ To Fontana Unified School District For Upgrading Its Fleet Of Roof Top Units With High Efficiency Replacements

By Better Buildings Beat Team on Sep 27, 2017

Imagine going back to school in very comfortable classrooms with high indoor air quality – that’s what’s happening for thousands of students in the Fontana Unified School District (FUSD) in San Bernardino County, California, thanks to a fleet of over 200 new rooftop units (RTUs) conditioning their schools. And these RTUs aren’t any old pieces of equipment; they’re the highest-efficiency units on the market.

How did FUSD afford this large-scale energy efficiency improvement? The engineering team at FUSD leveraged funding from the California Clean Energy Jobs Act (a.k.a. Proposition 39) to pay for the project. FUSD installed 201 high-efficiency units that met the Department of Energy’s “RTU Challenge” (CEE Advanced Tier) Specification, saving 1,061 MWh/year and $214,000 annually.

This is no small feat! The Advanced RTU Campaign recognized FUSD for its leadership with an award for its impressive RTU efficiency project. Find more details in the case study here. You can make the case for high-efficiency RTU replacement at your own facility by following the calculations in the Advanced RTU Campaign’s Business Case for Proactive RTU Replacement report.

The Advanced RTU Campaign is a nation-wide initiative that promotes RTU efficiency via high-efficiency replacements, advanced control retrofits, and quality maintenance/installation practices. If you’re interested in learning more about RTU efficiency for your own buildings, join the Advanced RTU Campaign as a Participant. By joining, building owners and operators gain technical support from RTU experts at the national laboratories, recognition for leadership in RTU efficiency, and access to case studies and guidance documents to support your organization’s RTU activities.