Commercial HVAC Replacement That Reduces Lifecycle Costs

Delivering LEED Gold Certification Through Innovative HVAC Design

Educational Facilities, K–12

Overview

The two-story, 140,000-square-foot Solomon Solis-Cohen Elementary School opened in 2021 as Philadelphia’s largest elementary school, serving 1,400 K-5 students. Designed to operate for the next 40–50 years, the school was built to support the district’s bold sustainability and cost-efficiency goals.

Havtech, in collaboration with Global Engineering Solutions (a Salas O’Brien company) and Tozour, supported the integration of enVerid HLR® technology into the design. The result: a school that delivers excellent indoor air quality while reducing operating costs and earning LEED Gold certification.

Challenge

The School District of Philadelphia needed a design that would:

Deliver best-in-class indoor air quality for students and teachers.
Reduce long-term operating costs through energy efficiency.
Maximize LEED points to achieve Gold certification.

Traditionally, better IAQ requires large volumes of outside air — but in Philadelphia’s climate, conditioning that air would have driven up costs and increased system size. The challenge was to balance health, comfort, and efficiency without sacrificing sustainability.

Solution

Havtech worked with the engineering team to specify 11 rooftop enVerid HLR modules that clean indoor air of CO₂, VOCs, and formaldehyde. By scrubbing and recirculating indoor air instead of relying solely on outside air, the design team could:

Downsize HVAC cooling capacity by 180 tons.
Avoid costly energy recovery components.
Maintain excellent IAQ that met ASHRAE, WELL, and LEED standards.

This innovative approach reduced outside air requirements by 61% while lowering both first costs and ongoing energy use.

Conclusion

With Havtech’s guidance and enVerid’s HLR technology, Philadelphia’s School District achieved its ambitious goals for sustainability, IAQ, and lifecycle cost reduction. The Solis-Cohen project demonstrates how smarter HVAC strategies can deliver measurable performance while shaping healthier schools for the future.

Details:

Engineering Firm:
Global Engineering Solutions (GES), a Salas-O’Brien Company

Building Type:
School

Square Footage:
2 floors totaling 140,000 sq. ft.

System Installed:
11 enVerid HLR® rooftop modules integrated into central HVAC system

Results

Energy & Cost Savings

$135,000 in upfront HVAC cost savings.
$36,300 in annual savings (241,422 kWh/year).
$726,000 projected savings over 20 years.
180-ton reduction in peak cooling load.

Improved Indoor Air Quality

61% reduction in outside air requirements.
Indoor air scrubbing removed CO₂, VOCs, and contaminants.
Contributed to healthier environments for students and teachers.

Sustainable Design Recognition

Achieved LEED Gold certification.
Earned 6 additional LEED points from IAQ performance.
Supports the district’s long-term cost and sustainability goals.

“A key goal of the Solomon Solis-Cohen project was achieving the highest possible LEED rating.

The HLR air scrubbers, which qualified the project for six additional points, were a large contributing factor in allowing the project to improve its rating to LEED Gold while also reducing project life cycle cost.”