West Campus Existing Building Conditions Cooling and Utility Systems
A new central cooling plant with underground piping distribution system was constructed and placed into service in 1999 to provide chilled water to six buildings with significant cooling loads. Plant capacity is 500 tons, with a connected peak load of about 450 tons. The thermal storage tank has a capacity of 3,500 ton-hours with the current cooling demand of about 2,700 ton-hours. Therefore, some reserve capacity is available to meet expansion of the campus. The system presently operates totally on the storage tank during peak electrical demand hours of 1:00 to 9:00 pm. It is possible to operate the chillers in conjunction with the tank to meet a larger cooling load – however there will be a significant energy cost penalty for running the chillers during the peak demand window.
Most of the air handling units were converted from direct expansion to chilled water by replacing only the cooling coil during the 1999 energy conservation and central plant project. Each building has an independent heating system – most use a gas-fired boiler. The Barth Learning Resources Center has electric heat. The cooling systems served by the new central plant have new digital controls connected by dial-up connection to the East Campus energy management system. The new system controls only the cooling, not the heating in some areas. Buildings not served by the central plant have minimal cooling, most with only a window unit (generally faculty offices at the shop buildings) or a wall-hung unit (portable classrooms).
The City of Corpus Christi provides public utilities to the campus. Generally speaking, they are adequate. Plumbing fixtures throughout the campus are reasonably adequate. Many are original to the late 1950’s construction and require significant maintenance – these do not meet current water conservation standards. Most buildings have been retrofitted for some degree of handicap accessibility, but much of the campus does not meet the current ADA requirements.
Water is master metered and distributed around the campus in private mains. Much of the piping is original to the 1950’s development of the campus and needs to be replaced. Some portions have been replaced or upgraded as buildings were added.