Sports Authority is one of the largest sporting goods retailers in the United States, operating more than 460 stores in 45 states under the Sports Authority name. In downtown Chicago, there is a store right in the primary tourist area, just a short walk from the Magnificent Mile, the best shopping in the Midwest. The store has eight floors of sporting goods, but more interesting, it has a Chicago sports Wall of Fame that include handprints of some very famous athletes, including Michael Jordan and Walter Payton. The handprints make this store a tourist attraction unto itself.

The building, which is more than 100 years old, was retrofitted with three Series 1600 Low Pressure Steam Boilers firing gas at 1600 MBH with modulating burners.

Triad’s modular vertical configuration was the perfect fit for this very compact basement boiler room. They replaced a large, very old boiler, and were easy to move into place, with virtually all the controls wired and mounted. The burners were then very simple to mount on the boilers. Rigging costs were kept at a minimum.

The building has realized savings because the modular boilers are sequenced by a control panel which fires only the minimum boilers based on outdoor temperature. No energy is wasted warming up one large, old boiler. This is expected to really make a difference during the fall and spring. Additionally, even though the Triads are smaller boilers, their construction is very similar to the larger firetube boilers that were being replaced.

In other words, the Triads are extremely rugged and can be expected to last many more years than other types of small modular boilers.

The store manager loves the boilers due to their simple operation, ease of maintenance, and lower gas bills.