Schmidt Consulting Group, Inc. has provided the University of South Alabama with a variety of Design/Bid, infrastructure improvements at their main campus in Mobile, Alabama. One of these improvements consisted of a campus-wide conversion of the high temperature hot water system to a low temperature system.

This project consisted of reducing the hot water operating temperature to 180 degrees F from the original 300 degrees F; modeling the existing campus-wide hot water system and utilizing heating demand data recorded by the main plant controls to calculate the diversified heating conditions of the campus; modifying the piping arrangement in the outer buildings to remove individual hot water pumps and heat exchangers in order to take each building’s hot water supply from the main loop; and upsizing the hot water pumps at the main plant to handle the increased flow requirements.

This had the effect of reducing pumping redundancy in the campus-wide system, reducing plant operating costs through the lower water supply temperature, and reducing plant operating costs due to the lower convective losses being realized in the underground piping system. In addition, the effective life of the existing boiler equipment will be extended due to the lower operating temperatures and pressures.