Most hardworking executives might define fun as a well-earned vacation, a few holes of golf or a game of tennis. Wayne T. Bonhag — principal of Bonhag Associates, PLLC, a consortium of mechanical and electrical engineers offering innovative solutions ranging from planning and process simulations and analysis to consulting and problem solving — finds fun in his work.

Bonhag claims to love the whole process of a project, from conception to conclusion. “I like the beginning when you have the initial vision — somebody has to have vision on the front end — and wrapping it up when you have all the details buttoned down,” he says.

Bonhag had the vision eight years ago to leave his job with a Vermont firm and go out on his own. He launched his current enterprise as primarily a Web-based business from the basement of his Poverty Lane home in Lebanon, N.H.
A second-generation licensed mechanical and electrical engineer, Bonhag established this specific business model after having eye surgery that forced him to work out of his home. During this period, he found that his type of work could successfully and conveniently be conducted over the Internet. When his employers balked at the Internet model, he decided to leave his job and put together a network of specialists from all over the world.

Bonhag Associates was able to save millions for Claremont Flock Corporation by designing flocking equipment that doubled the speed at which the company could flock cloth.

“If I need a chemical engineer, I’ve got him. If I need a structural or civil engineer, I’ve got them. Instead of having them on staff, which I don’t need because I may only have to work with them once a year, I can send an e-mail out and define the scope of a project and say, ‘I need this from you. Will you please provide this?’ ” says Bohag, who holds a Master’s in mechanical engineering from the University of Vermont and has completed advanced studies at Stevens Institute in Hoboken, N.J.

This model has proven successful for Bonhag Associates, which now has an adjunct office in Barre, Vt., as well as recently expanded offices on Poverty Lane. Bonhag Associates employs five full-time employees, including Deb Barney, who runs the Barre office, Jim Lambert, Ellen Reed, Karen Ainsworth and Wayne Bonhag himself. “We’re a little company, but it’s what’s up here that counts,” he says.

The firm is licensed in 15 states and presently has projects in approximately 10 of these including California, Florida, New York, Colorado, Illinois and Michigan. The vast majority of the company’s current projects are taking place around the Upper Valley and in Vermont and New Hampshire.

The nature of Bonhag Associates’ work is varied, involving planning, process simulation, analysis and consulting. “We do a lot of energy work, a lot of problem solving. A third of what we do is health care,” says Bonhag.

In 1999, Bonhag Associates revamped five operating systems and redesigned the mechanical systems at Fanny Allen Hospital in Colchester, Vt. They have since been called by Fletcher Allen Medical Center in Burlington, Vt., to do some smaller projects. At Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital in Lebanon, N.H., Bonhag Associates installed a new emergency generator, power, lighting, a boiler and HVAC.

Bonhag Associates’ first clients included Mii Technologies in West Lebanon and Claremont Flock Corporation in Claremont, N.H. At the time, Mii had a contract to develop a specific device for a prominent automobile manufacturer in Michigan. Bonhag handled the mechanical and electrical design, supplying power to the high-pressure presses and designing an environmentally controlled laboratory.

Bonhag Associates was able to save millions for Claremont Flock Corporation by designing flocking equipment that doubled the speed at which the company could flock cloth. This resulted in the need for only four production lines (at the cost of a million dollars each) as opposed to the anticipated eight.

Around this time, Bonhag Associates signed a contract with Vermont Gas Company to provide analysis and design. Bonhag designed gas chillers, gas air compressors and worked on several gas cogeneration projects, which has subsequently become a special focus of the company. A co-generation system relies on a single fuel source to provide electrical power and thermal for heating, domestic hot water and cooling in the warmer months. Through planning, the company has also helped clients secure energy savings either by reducing capital costs through design or through incentives from the local utility companies. “Since we’ve been in business, we’ve captured $17 million in energy savings for our clients,” says Bonhag.

“Since we’ve been in business, we’ve captured $17 million in energy savings for our clients,” says Bonhag.

In the Upper Valley, Bonhag Associates has worked with Trumbull-Nelson as the mechanical, electrical, plumbing and process consulting engineer for Luminescent Systems, Inc.’s 85,000 square-foot manufacturing and office facility in Lebanon, N.H. The project — which included consulting on all the HVAC, electrical power and lighting, and Direct Digital Controls systems for processes such as gas, chilled water, vacuum, compressed air, hot water, cold water and controlled exhaust systems — won a first place award from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).

Bonhag Associates also worked with Trumbull-Nelson in providing the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design for Harvest Hill, the independent and assisted-living retirement community in Lebanon, N.H., and is currently the mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineer for Dartmouth College’s 52-building Sachem Village project in Lebanon. Trumbull-Nelson is the general contractor on this project and Bonhag is the consultant working directly for the college. “This is a state-of-the-art project,” Bonhag says. “It’s really kind of fun.”

Although Bonhag Associates is a capable of performing a number of roles on a wide spectrum of projects, the key to what they do on any job “is to look at things outside the box, using conventional systems and putting them together in a matter that allows us to come up with a better result,” says Bonhag.