June 05, 2006

Around the steam lines

I returned to Amherst this past weekend for my 10-year class reunion. One of the activities organized by my class was a “tour” of the campus steam tunnel network, led by Physical Plant engineer Aaron Hayden.

While various safety regulations prevented Hayden from actually taking us through the tunnels (several spaces we saw were prominently marked with forms titled “Confined Space Permit”,) we started at the steam plant on the east side of the rail line and walked to several access points in the tunnels’ route, including the pressure reduction machinery in the old steam plant (the barnlike structure next to the current physical plant building, “the only steam plant designed by McKim, Mead,” as Hayden jokes,) the branch under Coolidge Dorm where the pipes head over to King and Weiland dorms (which used to serve Milliken,) and one of Merrill Science Center’s two machine rooms, where steam distribution takes place to many sites in the building.

Hayden also showed us the new chillers in the plant, where air conditioning for the campus is centralized, and the preparations for the new cogeneration plant. Those who read Rob Weir’s “How Green Is Our Valley?” article in the Winter ‘06 Amherst would recognize several of Hayden’s themes, since he is one of those who have been working on reducing the College’s environmental footprint. A few points Hayden made which didn’t appear in print:

• The chillers at the steam plant—which also run on steam—were installed because of their significant efficiency gains over even electrical window units. Since the price of natural gas dives every summer, air conditioning with gas reduces campus energy costs dramatically.

• The steam plant was built in the late ’70s with two boilers, one of which was expected to be sufficient to meet campus heat needs through 2000, with a second as a “warm spare” in case of problems with the first. Room was left for a third boiler to meet projected additional demand in 2000. However, shortly after the plant was built, the College began using automatic controllers for heat distribution which allowed demand to remain essentially flat: the third boiler was never needed. Instead, the cogeneration turbine will be installed in that space.

• The boilers from the old steam plant, which now serves as a general garage and warehouse but still holds the main trunk of the steam lines in its basement, remained in use until this year burning wood chips to heat the greenhouses at the Montgomery Rose company in Hadley. Those greenhouses were recently demolished; the site will become a Home Depot this summer.

• Physical Plant employs in excess of 400 people, the equivalent of an entire extra class at the College. Most students will only encounter dorm janitors, though, and according to Hayden, that’s the way they prefer it. “We’re here to make it possible for you to do what you’re here for. We’re not what this institution is about.”

The photo above will take you to a collection of phone-camera photos I took of the tour, on Flickr.

Parker Morse '96 | June 5, 2006 04:07 PM | Campus

Min Choi | June 13, 2006 12:31 PM:

Dave Gottlieb '06 | June 15, 2006 06:09 PM:

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