Hoffman Estates sits directly west of Schaumburg along I-90. Its commercial side is shaped by large campuses: the Prairie Stone business park, built around the former Sears headquarters and home to the NOW Arena, and the former AT&T campus now redeveloped as Bell Works Chicagoland.
Large campus buildings usually mean central plants, big air handlers and building automation systems that have been patched over decades of tenant changes. Around them are the strip centers, restaurants, medical offices and hotels that run on rooftop units and split systems.
LOC-03Hoffman Estates · Cook County
What we see in Hoffman Estates buildings
- 01
Big buildings, re-divided
Campus buildings split among many tenants, where air handlers and VAV zones were designed for one company’s floor plan.
- 02
Controls that don’t talk
Equipment from different eras on different control systems. BACnet integration lets the building automation system see and run them together.
- 03
Central plant equipment
Boilers and chillers that serve whole buildings, where a single failure affects every tenant at once.
- 04
Rooftop units on retail and pad sites
Packaged units on restaurants and stores, often in need of coil cleaning and economizer repair.
NOTELocal notes
Good to know in Hoffman Estates.
Utilities
ComEd supplies electricity. Natural gas in Hoffman Estates is provided by Nicor Gas.
Permits
The Village of Hoffman Estates issues building permits for commercial mechanical work and equipment replacement.
Campus scale
Work in occupied multi-tenant buildings has to be scheduled around tenants, often after hours or in phases.
Q&AQuestions
Hoffman Estates commercial HVAC questions.
Answers specific to Hoffman Estates. For more, see all 36 commercial HVAC questions.
Gas smell? Leave the building, don’t touch switches, and call the gas utility or 911 from outside. CO alarm? Get everyone out and call 911. No heat in freezing weather? Call us, and never use ovens or grills indoors for heat.
Can you integrate older HVAC equipment into our building automation system?
Often, yes. Velocity HVAC-R offers BACnet integration, which lets equipment from different manufacturers and eras report to and be controlled by one building automation system, provided the equipment or an added controller supports it.
We start with an inventory of what’s on site and what your BAS can already see, then recommend the least disruptive way to bring the rest online.
Why are some suites in our multi-tenant building always too hot or too cold?
In most re-divided buildings, the zones no longer match the walls. A VAV box sized for one open office may now serve two suites with different loads, or a thermostat may sit in the wrong room.
VAV troubleshooting, repair and retrofit can rebalance the zones. We look at airflow, box controls and sensor placement before suggesting changes.
Does Velocity HVAC-R serve Hoffman Estates?
Yes. Hoffman Estates is next door to our Schaumburg base and inside our service area. We work on commercial and industrial buildings only.
Call 630-439-5958 to describe the building and the problem.
