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Friday Center to install new, environmentally-friendly cooling system

Things are going to be cooler at the Friday Center this summer.

After about three years of repairs and problems operating at capacity, two chillers and two cooling towers will be installed at an estimated cost of $2.4 million. The upgrade falls in line with the University’s push to become more environmentally friendly.

The additions will better regulate the center’s air conditioning system with greener, more efficient equipment, said Doug Mullen, chilled water systems manager for Energy Services.

“We’re just trying to avoid hot calls,” Mullen said, referring to faculty and staff calls about rooms being too hot.

Robert Bruce, director of the Friday Center, said the administration receives only an occasional complaint about room temperatures.

Mullen said the main impetus for replacing the cooling towers and chillers, which cool water used for air conditioning systems, is the age of infrastructure pieces.

“It’s getting to an age where it needs to be replaced,” he said.

The equipment is at the tail end of its 25-year life span, he said.

He said the pieces to be replaced have rusted several times over the past three years, requiring repairs. Because of their age and deteriorating condition, the chiller plant has operated at about 80 percent capacity, which reduces the Friday Center’s air conditioning capabilities.

The new chiller equipment will operate about 25 percent more efficiently than the current parts, Mullen said.

The new equipment is expected to last about the same amount of time as the current plant’s, but Mullen said he hopes the department can squeeze about 35 to 40 years out of the parts.

In addition to performance issues, the chiller plant has also had problems with redundancy. It currently uses two towers: one that holds 600 tons of water and another that holds 250 tons.

The larger tower has more than enough capacity to cool the center alone, but the smaller tower cannot. The new chiller infrastructure will feature two 500-ton towers that will be able to independently handle the water capacity needed to keep the Friday Center cool.

The refrigerant used to cool the water in the towers is also getting an upgrade. The chiller plant uses R-11 refrigerant, but the new infrastructure will use R-134a, which, if leaked, would not affect the ozone layer.

The old refrigerant has been in production since 1932 and is being phased out because it depletes the ozone layer. Chris Martin, the University’s director of energy management, said that when R-11 refrigerant spills into the atmosphere through leaks in equipment, it has the potential to cause environmental harm.

“(The new refrigerant) doesn’t do nearly the amount of damage,” he said.

Bids for construction part of the renovations were due Oct. 25.
Bids for materials to be used in the construction will be due Nov. 8, and construction is expected to begin this winter and finish May 2012.

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.

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