ing short of incredible,” Gallup added. “When we began to
see the impact of these savings, we knew we were on the
right track.”
Over at ECC
The Early Childhood Center (ECC)/Administration Building
was built in the 1950s, when it had been originally
tied into a campus-wide steam system, and acted as the
high school before Nichols was built in 1968. Now, the
building is a weekday home-away-from-home for over 180
kids, ranging from six weeks to five years old.
When Gallup took on his current role, ECC had two,
2-million BTU boilers, much more than was necessary for
the 27,000 sq ft single-story building.
“The ECC building has a convection heating system.
When looking at loop temps, the target water temp Delta
T is 20°F,” explained Culberson.
Once Gallup looked over the metered data collected
from the dashboard he had installed, he realized
there was only 8–9°F difference between the incoming
and outgoing water temps. Culberson quickly
spotted the problem, likely due to the use of oversized
pumps.
“An immediate solution to the oversized pumps was to
put variable frequency drives on them,” said Culberson.
“They went from running at twenty horsepower to eight.”
By modulating pump speed, they greatly improved heat
distribution, seen quickly in the improved system ΔT.
“Those big pumps had been pushing water way too fast
for system heat to be distributed,” added Gallup.
Equipment upgrades
The addition of variable frequency drives delivered a
quick solution to the expensive issue of oversized pumps,
but it wasn’t intended to be the main course of action
with the energy overhaul.
For that, Culberson suggested a 1.25 million BTU
Laars NeoTherm. The Laars NeoTherm line is a direct
vent, sealed combustion line of boiler/volume water heaters
that modulates with a 5-to-1 turndown, and an ASME
stainless steel heat exchanger with low NOx emissions.
“Kids as young as the ones at ECC are always crawling
around and playing on the floor,” said Gallup. “We didn’t
want hot radiators where kids could very easily burn
themselves, so we installed fin tube baseboards that accomplish
easy heat distribution with much lower temps.”
Also, a 55-gallon Bradford White water heater was
installed to meet the need for domestic hot water.
Another building in the Byron Center School District,
the Countryside Elementary school, needed some efficiency
tweaking and new equipment, although on a much
smaller scale. There, Gallup chose to install a 50-gallon
Bradford White water heater.
Re-greening takes root
Gallup’s passion for energy conservation, a penchant
for efficiency data and aggressive courses of action to
re-green the schools led all buildings in Byron Center
School District’s to receive an Energy Star rating, with
several at 100%.
“Our school district went from spending $1.4 million
a year for heating and cooling to $1 million,” noted Gallup.
Gallup continues to introduce eco-friendly practices to
the schools on smaller scale. For instance, students are
learning to make natural fertilizer in school greenhouses
for fields and trees. Many school windows now have an energy
efficiency film on the inside surfaces. Attic and wall
spaces have received enhanced insulation, and there is
light-harvesting technology in use as well.
“I’m not done yet,” said Gallup. “In the next three
years, I’d still like to invest in variable speed motors,
broader use of super-efficient insulation and thermal imaging
of all the schools to see where we can enact further
improvements.” ICM
ICM/July/August 2019 7