Smardt Chiller Group opened its first U.S. plant yesterday in Plattsburgh, NY. Factory upgrades commenced on May 1, 2010 and the plant shipped its first "Buy America" chillers in June. Since then, production flow of both air-cooled and water-cooled oil-free centrifugal Smardt chillers has been steadily increasing to major U.S. customers in government and private sectors.

Headquartered in Montreal and with operations there, in Singapore, Melbourne (Australia) and now Plattsburgh, Smardt Chiller Group claims leadership of the fast-growing high-efficiency chiller market with its wide range of oil-free centrifugal chillers, including water-cooled, air-coole,d and condenserless models. Since its first installation in 2002, Smardt has commissioned more than 1900 high-efficiency centrifugal chillers across the world, from the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, to the Sydney Opera House, to Carnegie Hall in New York.

According to Smardt Chairman Roger Richmond-Smith, the HVAC sector accounts for some 40% of energy consumption in U.S. buildings, which in turn consume over 40% of America's total energy.

A Smardt oil-free centrifugal chiller rack.

"The chillers that drive large cooling systems use a lot of energy, so when independent audits reveal that CFC-free Smardt chillers can save over 50% of the energy consumed by old CFC chillers it means a lot, not only to building owners and managers, but also to our rapidly warming planet. The faster that Smardt chillers replace orthodox chillers, the better for our fragile environment," Richmond-Smith says.

Smardt's core strength lies in our oil-free centrifugal technology, developed and perfected since 1992, which Richmond-Smith says gives Smardt a clear energy efficiency and ecological advantage over orthodox lubricated chillers.

"Our magnetic bearings and integral variable-speed drives increase reliability over lubricated machines and, with no oil system to maintain, total operating costs drop away rapidly. With rising energy prices and rapidly deepening concern for the environment and climate change, major global customers," he says. Those customers have included Sears, Deutsche Bank, and Hilton and Sheraton hotels.