PHOENIX - Today, August 22 was not one of Don Strong's better days at work. This was the day Strong, Facilities Manager at Arizona State Hospital, had to deal with a cooling system failure. August, of course, is not the preferred month for cooling system failures in the Valley.
"We lost a condenser tube in one of our chillers," explained Strong. The hospital has three units totaling close to 1800 tons of cooling. With a loss of tonnage in the York 600 ton chiller, Strong said load shedding measures had to be applied to non-occupied areas of the hospital so as not to impact patients and the normal operation of the hospital in any way.

With temporary measures in place, Strong contacted Metro Mechanical to fully evaluate the problem and recommend solutions.

"We arrived on the site Tuesday (August 24) and they had a lack of cooling, so we were forced to get a steam-driven Worthington chiller operating that hadn't run in two years." Said Rod Kraft service supervisor at Metro Mechanical. "We couldn't get enough capacity out of it, so (Don Strong) made the decision to get two 200-ton portable units." By this time it was approximately 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, August 25.

"NuTemp had the best rates and the best delivery time to meet our needs," said Strong of his decision to go with NuTemp supplied portable units.

"This is the kind of situation we specialize in," said Scott Sage, Arizona regional manager for NuTemp. Approximately four hours after the decision to rent portable cooling units was made, the NuTemp units were on site. A little after midnight, the chillers were piped in and running.

"So we had them back online at full capacity within 12 hours of the initial order for the chillers," said Kraft, adding that Metro Mechanical frequently works NuTemp, most often performing service maintenance on installed equipment. Kraft credits much of the quick service to the installation crew. "Our crew, the guys who were out there actually working, are the people who need to be recognized."

The two units will remain in place at the hospital for about eight weeks, according to Strong, who is pleased with how the problem was handled by both NuTemp and Metro Mechanical. "They more than surpassed our expectations," he commented.

NuTemp has had a Phoenix office for about one year. According to Sage, the company, which previously serviced this area from its Chicago headquarters, now uses Phoenix as their Southwest and West Coast service office. "We have shown a lot of growth over the past year," said Sage. " I would say we have had 25-30 percent growth."