The “chiller loop” is right on schedule. Connecting the Grace Van Dyke Bird Library, BC Bookstore and the Language Arts building via pipes will bring an increase of efficiency by more than 50 percent.
The six-foot trench has been completed, and the pipes have been moved into place. According to Keith Keevil, manager of maintenance and operations, this project is a fairly easy operation.
“Now that the trench is done, we just need to connect the pipes and make holes in the buildings,” he said.
In the basement of the Language Arts building and the south side of the library, 18-, 14- and 10-inch holes have been inserted to put the pipes through them. By doing this, the chiller will be able to transport cold air in all three buildings.
Using diamond, 50-pound drills will be used to make a perfect circle. In order to keep the building’s structure leveled, the process was slow.
“This takes a lot of patience, just to even get the correct measurements can take up a lot of time,” said Keevil.
By Oct. 22, the library will have three holes to run hot and cold water into all three buildings. The library has a chiller that is three times bigger than the chiller in Language Arts.
According to Keevil, if the buildings need extra cooling, having two chillers on at the same time can bring a better result for all three buildings.
BC student Gabriela Gonzales, a nursing major, says connecting these three buildings might not bring enough cool air to keep the buildings at a reasonable temperature.
“If they are planning to use one system to cool all three (buildings), there is no way it can cool them,” said Gonzales.
According to Gina Valdez, a nursing major, the Industrial Technology building is so cold that they need to bring an extra sweater to stay warm. The IT building is part of the 1950s chiller loop, which has been in operation since then.
While the construction is still under way, students still may find the area a little distracting.
Margarito Pascual, a history major, said that the construction has been a distraction to him. “All that stuff was in the way, sometimes I have to go around just to go the library.” Pascual also mentioned that there have been some disruptions during class due to the construction but nothing extreme.
Cindy Meza, a psychology major, has a class in Language Arts and said there have been no interruptions during lectures.
The trenches will be filled up after the pipes have been properly tested. One of the biggest problems the construction crew faced was the underground water and electric pipes that are no more than 10 inches thick.
“These construction workers really need to feel this stuff while digging in this trench,” said Keevil. “if we break one of these sensitive pipes, we will have so many complaints.”