Beth Israel Congregation
Rooftop Unit Replacement

Three gas-fired rooftop units serving Beth Israel Congregation's (BIC) sanctuary and social halls had reached the end of their useful lives. Their performance was unreliable and their maintenance costs had ballooned. The BIC's leadership decided to replace the rooftop units as a separate project prior to upgrading the rest of the synagogue's HVAC equipment. 

Following the schematic design narrative Inclination Engineering wrote in 2023, the replacement units would be air source heat pumps with electric backup heat. The units provide cooling and ventilation with enough heating capacity to warm the winter outside airflow. Perimeter furnaces supply space heating and will soon be replaced with ground source heat pumps. 

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We discovered that the existing units were significantly oversized compared to the needs of the spaces. Engineering analysis of the cooling loads allowed us to reduce the total installed capacity by 58%. This saved the congregation on upfront cost and long term on operation and maintenance costs since the compressors will not short cycle as the oversized units would have.

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