Issue date: 3/28/08 Section: Energy Special

When Tarleton State University replaced their old-style boilers with smaller, more efficient ones to heat the campus, within only four months the university saw a 60 percent decrease in fuel usage - results ACU would like to mimic.

Physical resources has been in contact with universities like Tarleton to find ways to save energy and update the already existing Central Plant, ACU's largest energy user.

Using 25-30 percent of the university's energy, the Central Plant monitors the distribution of heating and cooling on campus through a system of boilers, chillers, cooling
tower fans and about nine miles of underground piping.

"The burden of conservation is on us as we work it," said Bob Nevill, director of physical resources. "We are responsible for environmental consciousness."

The underground pipes, known as the loop system, extend across campus with two hot water pipes and two cold water pipes. Together, the pipes lead off to the buildings, with the main pumps at the Central Plant that circulates the water around the loop. And each building has pumps in it that circulate the water through the buildings.

ACU's three boilers correspond with two orange pipes that distribute hot water around campus. Heating the campus can cost up to $15,000 a day, which is why Nevill said physical resources is hesitant to cut the heat in the winter time.

Similarly, the four chillers correspond with two blue pipes that distribute cold water around campus. The chillers cool the water; the heat transfers from hot to cold. The system removes heat from the buildings with the cold water. It then absorbs the heat in the buildings and brings the heat back to the Central Plant where it goes to the cooling tower, which serves to cool the plant's equipment.

Don McLeod, energy management/ utilities manager, explained that electricity costs are driven by natural gas prices because the Central Plant burns natural gas.

"If you're talking total energy, during the winter time it's higher because we are using so much natural gas," McLeod said. "If it's in the summer time, it tosses back and forth. Our gas bill can range, in the summertime from $400 to $90,000 in the winter for a month."

McLeod said when he started at ACU five years ago, the university had begun upgrading parts of the Central Plant and focusing on energy.

"They did relighting; all of the florescent lights used to be these big lights," McLeod said. "Now they are more energy efficient lights, and that has cut our total energy bill by 10 percent roughly."

As renovations are made to buildings, physical resources is looking more at energy and air conditioning, realizing the biggest use of energy on campus provides the biggest chance for savings, on campus.

If ACU were to adopt a heating system similar to Tarleton's and achieve a 6 percent fuel decrease, the university could potentially save $160,000 in one winter season.

"As the campus grows, the use of energy goes up," Nevill said. "But if we do our job, the price stays the same. We are trying to be good stewards. If we can't justify the cost, we shouldn't be pursuing it."


E-mail Sutton at: les03c@acu.edu