The Hotline Newsletter

Don't Wait Another Year To Replace Your Inefficient Boiler Heating System

Just ask the management at Magid Glove. Their 126,000 square foot manufacturing plant in Chicago was heated with a gas-fired hot water boiler system that was very expensive to operate, even with the low cost of natural gas during the late 1990's. To make matters worse, the old boiler required high maintenance and it could not provide even temperature throughout the dual tenant building.

The solution was a retrofit with Cambridge direct gas-fired space heaters that reduced their gas usage by over 60% and gave MAGID a two-year payback on their investment.

MAGID produces work gloves and protective clothing products at this 50 year old brick facility, which is shared with their tenant who manufactures mattress bed frames. They each occupy half the building that includes separate dock door areas for both companies. The building has a metal roof with a 14-foot ceiling height. In addition to reducing their high fuel bills, another major goal of the retrofit was to provide even heating throughout the building, including dock door areas that were always cold during the winter.

MAGID Glove manufacturing facility in Chicago, Illinois

A local heating contractor was given the task of selecting a new heating system. They knew it was a perfect application for Cambridge S-Series space heaters because they had used Cambridge equipment in the past. The owner said, "I like its Blow-Thru® heater design that is small, compact, easy to install and puts out a lot of heat." He also commented "as a contractor, I know that Cambridge will stand behind their product." It is approved by the City of Chicago and has a two-year warranty.

During the fall of 1998, Horizontal Thru-Wall S-400 and S-800 series heaters were installed around the perimeter of the MAGID building. At the same time, Cambridge Engineering included this facility in their unique Free Building Study Program where customer gas bills are collected and temperature loggers are installed to monitor temperatures throughout the building.

Three heating seasons later Jim, the Facilities Manager at MAGID Glove, gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up response when asked how he liked his new Cambridge heating system. He said, "We now have warm, balanced temperatures through-out the building, even at the dock doors which used to be a big problem." Since Jim is responsible for building maintenance, he emphasized another big advantage of Cambridge heaters. He said, "The heaters are virtually maintenance free, except for periodic cleaning of the filters, which is another big improvement from our old boiler heating system."

What about the natural gas fuel usage? Bills from the Gas Company confirmed that after the Cambridge heaters were installed, fuel usage declined a dramatic 62% over the next two years. Combined with lower maintenance costs, that gave MAGID a two-year payback even before the cost of natural gas skyrocketed during the 2000 - 2001 heating season.