Berea City School District
House Bill 264 Energy Conservation Program
Over the last 75 years Berea High School has seen many additions and renovations. The most critical need for the High School in 1998 was an upgrade to their boiler plant. The boiler plant consisted of two 1927 converted fire tube steam boilers and one 1975 Ohio Special scotch marine steam boiler. The two 1927 boilers have been used since they were installed! ASHRAE TC 1.8 Table for Equipment Service Life lists steam boilers life at 25-30 years. The existing boilers were operating at an efficiency of approximately 60%.
The new design utilized 3 Ohio Special Boilers with a total capacity of 15 MBTU and an additional 5 MBTU boiler to replace the unreliable pool boilers and provide redundancy to the main boiler plant. The efficiency of the new plant is 82%.
Additional upgrades to the system included new boiler controls that integrated into the new building automation system and outdoor air louvers that would insure proper combustion air be delivered to the boiler fire, protecting students and staff from harm. The make-up water feed and steam traps were reworked to assure a healthy system.
Along with the boiler plant upgrade, the District did a school wide lighting retrofit replacing outdated and inefficient T-12 electromagnetic technology with T-8 electronic ballasts and lamps. The lighting generated substantial savings to offset program costs. Dark corners were eliminated and reflections on computer screens were as well when parabolic lenses were added to student computer areas. The lighting project included special considerations to accommodate internal security cameras and include motion sensors that ensure video recording capability by turning on lights in monitored areas when intruders pass through.
Univents were used throughout the school and many of them were malfunctioning and had become maintenance intensive. These units were replaced in order to provide a more consistent, healthier classroom environment.
Antiquated stand-alone controls were replaced with modern, networked Direct Digital Controls.
Performance data shows a decrease in kilowatt hours consumed by 15% a reduction of 16% of the kilowatts. Natural gas consumption was reduced 17%.
The Berea City School District is dedicated to continuously improving the educational environment. It is evident that the District is willing to work hard to achieve those goals. The Energy Program implemented at Berea High School certainly had a positive impact on the facility's infrastructure and budget.
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