Cooling renovation leads to warmer buildings

Temperatures in campus buildings have been rising due to the renovation of IU's cooling system, said Mark Menefee, assistant director of utilities at the IU Physical Plant.\nThe renovation process began in January and is expected to end in July with the replacement of two "chillers," which reduce the water temperature used in air conditioning systems.\n"The chillers cool water down to 40 degrees Fahrenheit ... and we pump that water out to campus to the buildings. That water is used in the air handlers to cool the buildings," Menefee said.\nAs part of the installation process, two of the remaining chillers were shut down, which has led to reduced capacity.\n"We've got a couple of chillers that share common systems with the ones we're replacing and that has caused us to have to shut down some chillers for a limited amount of time. We therefore have reduced capacity," Menefee said. "This is unseasonably warm weather and it's causing us some problems."\nHe said the campus needs around 20,000 tons of cooling. \n"Right now we're trying to serve that load with 8,000 tons," Menefee said. "So it's less than half of what we would need."\nMenefee said a typical house can be cooled using three tons. However, the system has not been running at full capacity for years.\n"Before the renovation we had about 13,000 tons of cooling," Menefee said. "We expect in mid-July to put chillers 1 and 2 in service, which will increase our capacity to around 16,000 tons."\nHowever, conditions in buildings on campus could improve this week. Menefee said an additional 2,500 tons will be available as early as today.\nWhile running under reduced capacity, Menefee said buildings were prioritized for cooling.\n"We have prioritized the list of buildings on campus and the animal facilities and the research facilities are being taken care of as the highest priority," Menefee said. "There are just over 60 buildings on campus that are served by the central chilled water system and we are having to rotate cooling. So we will shut off cooling for an hour in order to try to serve all the buildings at once with a limited capacity."\nWith high priority placed on animal and research facilities, buildings with heavy student traffic such as the HPER and the dorms have been warmer than usual.\nJunior Briana Braun has cut down her usual workout routine at the HPER due to excess heat.\n"I used to run about two miles around the track at the HPER, but it's just too hot there," she said. "I've been running outside instead because I can't handle being in that building."\nStudents taking summer classes in Ballantine Hall have also noticed the rising temperatures.\nJunior Paul Bryant said while classrooms have been warm, it hasn't interfered with his classwork.\n"It does get hot in the classrooms, but we just crack a window and it's usually fine," Bryant said.\nHowever, the heat has led to complaints from other students in his classes.\n"It always bothers my classmates so they ask if we can open a window when it gets unbearable for them," Bryant said.\n-- Contact campus editor Karen Green at kamgreen@indiana.edu .