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Hi All,

Thanks for adding me to the forum. This is my first time posting.

One of the mechanical contractors who does quite a bit of work at our university is proposing cost savings in one of our new academic (non-lab) buildings by switching from the specified, designed hydronic system (chiller, connection to district energy system, etc) to VRF. The proposed VRF system has eleven condensing units, with a total of 20 VRF switching valve box's and 110 indoor fancoil units connected to them . We do have many small VRF systems on campus and generally accept them as a necessary system for specific applications such as small buildings or some renovations. However, this would be the first time we've seen it as the primary HVAC system on this scale.

With the systems we currently have, we have had challenges including:

- High costs resulting from dependency on 3rd party maintenance contractors who have the necessary factory training... also, that in some cases these maintenance contractors attend and are unable to fix the issue so we end up throwing money at the same contractor to keep coming back to trouble shoot.

- Poor integration with the Building Automation Systems

- Reduced flexibility for future changes where they are installed

- Blown refrigerant with leaks being very hard to find

- Concerns about the future migration path of this equipment and what end of service life looks like since all the controls, equipment and piping has such a high level of integration

I am concerned that this type of system is not appropriate for a medium sized academic building. However, our capital groups are very interested in savings on first cost; they will listen if I can make a case about total cost of ownership. On paper the VRF systems are low maintenance and suppliers won't concede the issues above. I have stories about system failures that resulted in high effort and high costs - however, these are largely anecdotal and are hard to represent in a life cycle analysis. 

One thing to note is that we have a hard time retaining refrigeration trades as they make very high wages with lots of overtime in the private sector in our city (Vancouver, BC).

If anyone else has experience with VRF (good or bad) which they're willing to share, and which I can use to make my case to our capital planning groups I would appreciate it.

Thank you,

Andrew