Purdue News
Purdue News
Joe Mikesell, director of utilities, said the problem in the chiller should be corrected by the end of this week, and the air-conditioning system should be back up to full capacity by then.
Because the chiller is not running, several campus offices and classrooms have become uncomfortably warm for some people, Mikesell said. "Unfortunately, this glitch hit the system during the first hot days of the summer," he said.
Last week, workers were to have completed the final stages of a $1 million upgrade to the chiller to install a more environmentally friendly refrigerant. When the chiller was started up again, Mikesell said, an internal mechanical problem was detected. If the chiller continued to run, it could have been damaged, he said.
The air-conditioning system is now running with the four remaining chillers.
"Without the fifth chiller, we are limited in terms of the demand we can handle," Mikesell said. "We were OK until the temperature reached the low 90s Monday. What this means is that we may not have adequate cooling capacity to keep all the campus buildings at a comfortable temperature."
The cooling capacity of the Purdue system without the fifth chiller is about 12,000 tons of refrigeration. A typical three-bedroom house requires about three tons of refrigeration.
On very hot days such as we've been experiencing, Mikesell said, the Purdue campus demand is about 16,000 tons. Once the chiller is up and running again, the capacity will be 18,000 tons of refrigeration.
Source: Joe Mikesell, (765) 494-7327
Writer: Amanda Siegfried, (765) 494-4709; e-mail, amanda_siegfried@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu
