The $300,000 project will be Tour Andover Controls' first for the school district since the company was selected as an approved vendor for BACnet® building control products.

The Douglas County School District (DCSD), located between Denver and Colorado Springs, is the fourth largest district in Colorado and serves 44,000 students at more than 60 campuses. With a growth rate that has remained between 6 and 7 percent each year for the last decade, DCSD is one of the fastest growing districts in the nation.

Tour Andover Controls partner Westover Controls, based in Denver, was awarded the project based on the company's ability to integrate the Andover Continuum® building automation system (BAS) with the district's existing controls.

"Douglas County Schools standardized all the building controls using the BACnet open protocol several years ago," said Bill Chambers, facilities operations manager, Douglas County School District. "At first, we were satisfied using one approved vendor, but later, we decided to find other suppliers.

"Several companies bid for a contract with the district, including the original controls vendor. That company and four others were asked to complete a 30-step test to determine if they could meet our BACnet specifications. Of the four new applicants, only Tour Andover Controls and its Continuum system were able to successfully complete the test and become our second approved controls vendor."

Dean Meyer, president of Tour Andover Controls' Americas region, sees light at the end of the tunnel.

"The DCSD has plans to build several additional schools over the next few years," said Meyer. "With this first contract in place, Westover and our company are in an excellent position to obtain additional contracts to install the Continuum control system at these other new facilities."

Chambers was pleased with how the Continuum system performed in the district's test.

"Our staff is looking forward to working with Westover and Tour Andover Controls," he said. "We hope for a long and positive relationship."

Continuum network controllers will monitor the HVAC systems in the new DCSD high school. These powerful central processing units (CPUs) and network managers offer an open system solution for facility management, explained Meyer. Features of the Continuum BAS include Ethernet network connectivity; high-speed processing, programmable communications ports for flexible interconnect and third-party communications; flash memory for easy online software updates; and built-in Web server capabilities.

Publication date: 02/28/2005