But that conventional way of thinking didn't work for Phil Hegge, director of facilities and services of MBI (Lansing, MI). MBI is a nonprofit research and development firm that currently occupies a 120,000-sq-ft research laboratory built in 1986. The building had a BAS in place, but it was rather primitive to begin with, and the vendor was not able to provide any reasonable upgrade paths. By 1998, parts were no longer available for the BAS hardware, and it became necessary to look at installing an entirely new system.
The existing BAS vendor, as well as other BAS manufacturers, could only suggest ripping out the entire existing system and replacing it with a new one. Hegge didn't like this idea, mainly due to the exorbitant costs the various vendors said would be required to replace the system. He and his staff decided to look at writing their own algorithms and flow charts and buying the controls directly from a manufacturer not typically involved in the HVAC industry.