Home | Reston Central Air C

Our Mission: Fact-Based Decision-Making Relative to Cooling Your Home

Who We Are:

We are a group of concerned owners of Reston cluster units that are now subject to uncertainty about the future for air-conditioning our homes due to RELAC LLC discontinuing service for the "central air-conditioning" we have relied on and turning control of their operation over to a yet to be operational "RELAC Water Cooling" corporation.

Our Message:

This website was originally created to address misinformation being spread by RELAC Water Cooling prior to the completion of voting on the Reston Association referendum to revoke the covenant requiring use of the "central air-conditioning" previously provided by RELAC LLC. It provided information to help eligible voters make an informed choice and provided information relative to future air-conditioning choices for all those who have relied on RELAC LLC. This information also refuted a fear and coercion campaign that RELAC Water Cooling was engaged in to get people to vote NO on the referendum and to get them to provide funding to RELAC Water Cooling. Thankfully, we can report that RELQC Water Cooling is no longer using those tactics. We hope we played a part in that reversal. They have begun doing what we believe they should have done from day one, which is to do their homework on what they can legally do relative to funding and then follow a legally acceptable path that does not rely on fear and coercion. Note that their prior scare tactics were unnecessary based on their own financial projections! We hope they will remain above-board in all of their future tactics.

We feel it is very important that RELAC Water Cooling achieves the funding they need. Without necessary funding it is likely that a number of former customers of RELAC LLC will face a summer of either low quality air-conditioning or no air-conditioning. Subject to RELAC Water Cooling disclosing their ownership and Simon McKeown as CEO or RELAC Water Cooling making a legally binding commitment that they will refund donations if they are unable to provide the chilled water service, we encourage those of you that would like to stay on the chilled water service formerly offered by RELAC LLL to support RELAC Water Cooling by donating to them.

KEY Points Going Forward

RELAC LLC was the previous provider of the chilled water service needed for the central air-conditioning that is required to be used by the residential clusters it served.
RELAC LLC had previously indicated they would not provide service for 2024 and beyond due to not having the capital to perform repairs and capital investment needed to keep the service viable. This is what prompted the current situation relative to whether or not the service will be available in 2024 and beyond and which led to the Reston Association referendum to revoke required use of the service.
RELAC LLC still exists and has now indicated in an email chain with Reston Association that they could provide service for the 2024 cooling season.
RELAC Water Chilling is a non-profit corporation initiated by Simon McKeown to take over providing the service previously provide by RELAC LLC.
Simon is now the CEO of both RELAC LLC and RELAC Water Cooling. It appears he will be in charge regardless of which of the two organizations offers the chilled water service.
RELAC Water Cooling is seeking donations of $1000 or so from each served residential cluster unit and is negotiating fees for the chilled water service with the condominiums and businesses that used the chilled water service in the past, but which were not required to do so by the covenant. These donations and fees on top of the service fees previously charged by RELAC LLC are needed so that they have the capital needed to perform the repairs and investment that RELAC LLC could not afford.
Simon has indicated that if the donations do not provide the necessary capital, RELAC Water Cooling will not be viable.
If RELAC Water Cooling is not viable, it is an open question as to whether or not RELAC LLC or RELAC Water Cooling could provide the service on top of the infrastructure in its current degraded state - one and a half chiller capacity out of the four chillers that were originally used.
During public meetings leading up to the referendum, there was some concern raised about the noise level of individual air-conditioning units people might install if the covenant was revoked. Individual conditioning units are regulated to have a 72 db or less noise level, equivalent to the interior noise level of a car at highway speed.
During public meetings leading up to the referendum, there was some concern raised that individual air-conditioning units would create an eye-sore. This issue appears to be manageable by enforcement of cluster standards that require either landscaping or enclosures around units.
During its period of scare tactics, RELAC Water Cooling indicated costs of $15,000 or more for individual air-conditioning. While the costs can vary significantly based on home size and other factors, owners on Chimney House Rd. who are seeking medical waivers that allow them to purchase individual air-conditioning units are receiving quotes in the range of $8000 to $13,000, with the higher quotes including furnace replacement or installation of a heat pump that can do both cooling and heating.

FAQ

Do we have any details of the MOU between Simon McKeown and RELAC LLC, particularly in regards to legal mechanisms for transfer of assets from RELAC LLC to either Simon, RELAC Water Cooling, or the non-existent coop that Simon has described?

We have been unable to find a publicly available copy of the MOU and therefore do not know what rights Simon, RELAC Water Cooling, or a potential coop have to the assets of RELAC LLC.

Is RELAC Water Cooling the cooperative that is described under the "About" menu on their website?

No, RELAC Water Cooling is a recently incorporated non-profit corporation. The coop does not exist. We believe that RELAC Water Cooling should remove this misleading page from their website. What is particularly alarming about this webpage is that it can easily be interpreted as indicating RELAC Water Cooling and the coop are the same entity. This is a continuation of the misinformation that has been a characteristic of RELAC Water Cooling from day one.

Who are the shareholders in RELAC Water Cooling?

We have been unable to find any public documentation on who the shareholders in RELAC Water Cooling are. Note that a single person may establish a corporation in Virginia and that such person can be the sole shareholder in a corporation. We would like to see RELAC Water Cooling disclose their ownership structure so that it can be verified that there will be community control over the service. Without that, we are assuming that Simon McKeown must own at least controlling interest in RELAC Water Cooling.

Will noise from newly installed air-conditioners be an issue:

Previously we noted that new air-conditioners are regulated to be at or lower than 72 dba. An owner recently measured the sound level from their new Amana 3 ton air conditioner at 60 dba at a three foot distance. 60 dba is roughly equivalent to the sound you would find in an enclosed office that has air-conditioning coming into it via ceiling vents. Evidence of this will be posted on the Facebook page associated with this website.

What expert analysis has been provided relative to RELAC Water Cooling's request for donations to fund needed repairs and capital investment?

The following was provided by Mark Lazerson, a resident of Governour's Square Cluster, in an email sent on March 16, 2024.

SOME INNOCENT QUESTIONS ABOUT RELAC WATER COOLING’S (RWC) INVESTMENT FUND SOLICITING FORMER RELAC CUSTOMERS FOR $1000 “DONATION”

1. Should the RWC fail to “…reach the minimum funding commitments by the deadline of March 24, 2024, with funds deposited by March 30, 2024,..” does it have a legal obligation to return all or any part of that “donation?"

The answer is murky. The accepted definition of a donation is that it is money given to another free of any expectation whatsoever of consideration (something of value) to be given in return. When we give a dollar to a supposedly hungry beggar on the street can we claim reimbursement should the money not be spent on food? On the other hand, when monies are exchanged for consideration or a promise to do something in return (a quid pro quo) usually one can find that a contractual relationship arose from the exchange. This normally is not the case for something defined as a donation, which assumes no strings are attached. Essentially the same as giving a gift. One may also reasonably ask why RWC makes no good faith offer to return any “donations” should the “minimum funding commitments” – a threshold puzzingly never defined – not be reached.

2. Is the $1000 truly a “donation” when RWC tightly links it to making the necessary investments needed to provide chilled water to the very same customers being asked for a “donation?” The language strongly indicates that something of value is being exchanged for the “donation.” In such a case, it may, if challenged, not qualify as a “donation.”

3. Why does RWC oblige “donors” to state that they understand that the $1000 is not a tariff and that the Virginia SCC has not mandated that it be paid as a condition of service?

Here the answer appears to be because RWC has so far not registered with the Virginia SCC as a utility and therefore does not have permission to impose any conditions on RELAC customers for increased tariffs or surcharges for equipment and repairs.

4. If a former RELAC customer does not “donate” $1000, can he or she be denied service by the RWC?

Here too the answer appears fairly clear: almost certainly not, since a “donation” is not recognized by any regulated utility service as a requirement to obtain service, since all utility customers have a right to equal treatment. Should RWC succeed in reaching the undefined “minimum funding commitments,” even those who have not “donated” should expect to receive the same service as those who “donate.”

I hope these questions and tentative answers prove helpful in allowing RELAC customers to reach an informed decision concerning RELAC Water Cooling’s request for a $1000 "donation."

Yours,

Mark Lazerson

Governour’s Square Cluster

Future of this Website

This website will be updated over time to help you keep abreast of changes in status of RELAC LLC and RELAC Water Cooling that impact the provisioning of the chilled water service. It will also keep you up to date on any decisions by Reston Association as to whether or not the covenant is still in force due to availability or unavailability of the chilled water service. We encourage our readers to use the link to our Facebook page to provide feedback on the chilled water service you are receiving and to share information that would be helpful to those who are pursuing getting an individual air-conditioning unit.