“In addition to the cost reductions,

they’ve also helped us make it

easier to keep our 200 employees

comfortable and helped simplify

things because we’ve been able to

eliminate other vendors. I highly

recommend them.”

Proactive, preventative maintenance program helps Bituminous Insurance cut costs, increase comfort

563-391-1344 | 5885 Tremont Avenue | Davenport, IA 52809

Case studyBituminousInsurance

Dominic ScodellerDirector of Facilities, Bituminous Insurance

The Client ChallengeWhen Dominic Scodeller became Director of Facilities at Bituminous Insurance in Rock Island, Ill., he was very surprised when he reviewed the electrical and gas bills for the 1937, three-story building.

Although he was expecting age to factor into the bills, he didn’t expect costs to be as high as they were.

“As I was looking at the bills I was thinking to myself, this is ridiculous,” said Scodeller. “The equipment was very old and was not taken care of, and that was having a huge impact on electrical and heating costs.”

Scodeller also realized that it was only a matter of time before the equipment would start to fail and continue to increase the amount of money Bituminous would have to invest in electrical and gas costs.

Instead of taking a reactionary approach, Scodeller decided to become proactive. He began the search for a maintenance provider and eventually turned to Davenport-based Northwest Commercial Heating & AC.

The Northwest Commercial Heating & AC SolutionAs a commercial heating and air conditioning service provider, Northwest Commercial Heating & AC helps businesses decelerate the aging process on equipment and decrease energy costs by implementing preventative maintenance programs.

When Scodeller met with Dave Hoeksema, maintenance sales specialist with Northwest Commercial Heating & AC, the two of them reviewed the current HVAC costs and quickly determined that a full coverage preventative maintenance program would help Bituminous save money and address the aging equipment and rising costs.

The program would allow Bituminous to proactively monitor the aged equipment and ensure it was running at full capacity. In addition to scheduled maintenance, the full coverage program includes cleaning, inspection and testing of equipment, calibration of controls, filter changes, supplies, and around-the-clock coverage. Most importantly it covers

repairs and parts replacement. “We appointed a main technician to take care of the Bituminous facility and become intimately familiar with the equipment,” said Hoeksema. “He monitored the equipment, regularly visited to ensure everything was working properly and began to identify the equipment that was in most dire need of repair or replacement.”

The ResultsUsing this approach, Northwest Mechanical was able to help Bituminous transform its aging equipment into an efficient and reliable HVAC system.

Northwest has made significant upgrades to the system, including the replacement of one chillers, two air handling units, two steam boilers, four computer room units and three rooftop units. The Northwest team also installed a control system that allows Scodeller and his team to monitor and control HVAC equipment through the Internet.

With the upgrades to the system, Bituminous has seen significant reductions in their energy usage. The facility is currently running at 63% of the cost they used to be running at.

“Northwest has done a great job for us,” said Scodeller. “In addition to the cost reductions, they’ve also helped us make it easier to keep our 200 employees comfortable and helped simplify things because we’ve been able to eliminate other vendors. I highly recommend them.”

In fact, Scodeller has been so pleased with Northwest that he has even started using the Northwest residential services division for his home.

Northwest Commercial Heating & AC helps Rock Island insurance company cut energy bills by 37%