The proposal wouldn't be for replacing a computer and a 1200buad modem. It's for replacing a distributed HVAC control system at 19 locations. If you're doing that, you're going to want to bring the system up to current standards and that includes things like commissioning [1] the system for energy performance and replacing controls and logic at both ends...or maybe going away from a hub and spoke architecture. And it all comes with RFP's for design, public bids, performance bonds, insurance, warranties and all sorts of things that grandma's Wordpress site doesn't typically require.

[edit] To put it in perspective, getting the controls right dwarfs energy use. Let's call the cost $1.9 million and the number of sites 19 giving a cost per site of $100,000. Let's assume that the energy cost per site is $100,000/month and that the controls are capable of +10%. That puts the payback period at 10 months, so let's call it a year. Even if the efficiency improvement is only 1%, the payback period is well before the 30 year life cycle of the building (which not by coincidence matches the 30 year maturity of typical bonds and the bond financed control system built around an Amiga).

$100k per month per site for energy? That number seems high to me, but I can't seem to find a link suggesting for/otherwise. Is that really what schools pay?

Doesn't seem high to me. I recall that my school district replaced the HVAC system while I was in high school and the ROI paid for the new multimillion dollar system in something like 5 years.

http://www.schoolenergysaving.com/schoolEnergyFacts.php

"A mid-sized school district with 800,000 square feet of space pays more than $1M annually for energy."

"Space heating, cooling, and lighting together account for nearly 70% of school total energy use."

That 800,000 sq ft is for an entire district. With a little searching, I found that Saline High School is the single largest school in Michigan at 480,000 sq ft. Most large schools seem to be in the low hundreds of thousands.

So the $100k/mo figure is probably high by a few factors - maybe an order of magnitude at most.

Knock it down an order of magnitude and the payback goes to 100 months versus 360 months on the bonds financing the renovation.

You might have noticed the trend of "de-malling," transforming indoor malls into open air shopping centers. While there are many drivers for this, the ongoing cost HVAC is a big one. So it doesn't surprise me that schools would pay so much.

That doesn't seem unreasonable to me. My guess is they'll also be updating some of the controlled equipment at the same time too.

2 million for 19 buildings gives you slightly more than 100K per location.

To me, it looks like a very optimistic guess.

I'm guessing they mean to replace all the heating equipment as well.

$2m might cover design fees for swapping out mechanical systems across 19 schools but probably not considering that this would be on the high end of the typical public project fee curve because of how messy HVAC renovations are for the sort of water distributed systems usually installed in large 40 year public buildings. It's not going to be craning in and out some package units from the rooftop.

From TFA:

Bringing Stocking Elementary out of moth balls, replacing boilers and roofs, and removing asbestos were just some of the projects GRPS put on the Warm, Safe and Dry list before the Commodore computer.

It seems they've already replaced boilers. They could have fixed any leaking radiators while they did that. ISTM they really are just talking about the control system. Perhaps it made sense to build a custom system in 1982, although I really doubt it. Nowadays, Honeywell certainly sells units that can just be dropped in, at each site. Unless they have steam tunnels running between the 19 buildings, centralization of control seems unnecessary. Sure, holidays, snow days, and terms move around slightly, but schools are on the internet now so staff at district HQ can manage each site's schedules when they need to do so. It would make sense to have centralized reporting, but just run that over the internet instead of the walkie-talkie bands.

IANACivilEngineer!

Current best practice [and perhaps state regulations for public schools] require commissioning the controls. And RFQ's, RFP's, sealed bids, etc. The project requirements are discontinuous with a homeowner thermostat replacement in the same way that database cluster requirements are discontinuous with a Comcast residential gateway.

That seems orthogonal to centralization? Sure, an HVAC tech should regularly inspect each site, and should be on call for any issues. That doesn't require split-second coordination of mechanical operation among separate sites. We're talking about heating some schools, not operating a nuclear enrichment facility.

Neither is there anything about the "commissioning" process that mandates that control systems may only be replaced when mechanicals are also replaced. That would be ridiculous. Please note that I am not quibbling about the $2M cost. I merely observe that TFA discusses the control system only.

Commissioning etc. are orthogonal to the system configuration, and we should just agree to agree that a centralized control point is not necessarily necessary. OTOH IMPO, the control system requirements should be specified by a HVAC PE.

Yeah we're agreed on that. I have seen bad results from e.g. duct layout design by "experienced technicians".