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<br />, <br /> <br />ECONAR is not an unknown manufacturer. It is a key player in the geothermal industry <br />and has produced over 16,000 geothermal heat pumps worldwide. It offers products with <br />unit capacities of 1 '12 tons thru 30 tons. The larger 30-ton units have been operational in <br />installations for more than seven years. The Library specifies 20-ton units. Because of <br />ECONAR's reputation in the industry, eight bidders contacted ECONAR for a <br />geothermal bid after they saw geothermal was being installed in Energy City, <br />ECONAR's hometown. Although ECONAR has more geothermal applications of its <br />products in Minnesota then all the manufacturers on the approved list combined, it was <br />likely excluded from the Library design because the engineer wasn't familiar with <br />ECONAR's range of products or hadn't any personal experience with them. <br /> <br />The design process is difficult for ECONAR to affect. It can only offer support for the <br />project and then hope its products are specified and when they are not, move on. Not <br />being specified or not being listed does not imply an incompatible product or a bad <br />design. It only implies that the engineer was more familiar with another product or the <br />owner didn't suggest a desired product. <br /> <br />From ECONAR's point of view, the Library is considered a small project. The city <br />council seems to have been influenced that it may be too big for ECONAR or that <br />ECONAR has not done this type of project before. Please review the attached sampling <br />of domestic commercial geothermal projects to ease those concerns. Numerous other <br />commercial projects not on the list also exist such as Great River Energy's office addition <br />and our own headquarters, an 18,000 sq. ft office building here in Elk River. Also <br />submitted before the prior approved equal date, along with ECONAR's data requested by <br />the engineer, was ECONAR's commercial warranty, which generously exceeds the plan <br />requirements. If parts were needed, I would hope you would prefer to deal with a <br />manufacturer in Minnesota to one in Florida. <br /> <br />The following is a listing provided to me by ECONAR's commercial applications <br />manager in chronological order of events that transpired after the bid documents were <br />received and before bid date. It is apparent from the following that ECONAR met the <br />requirements and was given the impression it would be allowed to bid. <br /> <br />Del, <br /> <br />Here are my thoughts on the time line. <br /> <br />Oct. 2nd (late Monday) <br /> <br />Received a fax from Chris Nelson (Karges-Faulconbridge) with a fax time stamp from their office <br />of 16:22 (4:22) PM but dated Friday. The fax was the project heat pump schedule showing the <br />FHP. The fax was the official request to select and submit a comparable ECONAR (20-ton). <br /> <br />Oct. 3 rd <br /> <br />Talked with Dale Mueller about the 20-ton Ultra. Dale started preparing the needed engineering <br />performance data. <br /> <br />I called Chris Nelson and told him the ECONAR heat pump will have the same performance as <br />the selected FHP. I told him it looks like FHP is using the same Copeland scroll compressor that <br /> <br />2 <br />