Facilities and Grounds: Rules for Turning On Steam Plant

Facilities and Grounds: Rules for Turning On Steam Plant

Rowand-Johnson Hall, one of the buildings that uses heat from the steam plant

Temperature, carbon footprint and preference: Facilities and Grounds considers several factors regarding when to turn on the B.B. Comer steam plant.

A number of buildings receive all their heat from the plant: Mary Burke, Martha Parham, Harris, Farrah, Hardaway, McLure and Rowand-Johnson, among others. When the plant gets turned on rests on a number of factors, including average temperatures and environmental concerns.

“As we all know, the weather in Tuscaloosa is anything but predictable,” said Duane A. Lamb, associate vice president, facilities and grounds. “It can be 50 degrees for three consecutive days and 75 degrees the next day.”

UA has two different temperature thresholds for determining when to start the central steam plant: Average high temperatures stay below 55 degrees for three consecutive days, and an average mean temperature below 45 degrees for three consecutive days, he said. Temperature projections are also considered. Facilities reviews a 14-day temperature projection on a daily basis to help determine when the switch gets flipped, he said.

One key point to stress is UA’s commitment to the environment and a green standard: the later the steam plant is activated, the greener UA gets.

“Our central steam plant accounts for approximately 30 percent of our total campus natural gas use,” Lamb said. “UA’s carbon footprint due to ‘direct emissions’ is much lower than our peer institutions partly due to our policy for steam boiler startup. Every day the University can delay starting the steam plant reduces our overall carbon footprint, therefore assisting us in our sustainability efforts and improving our position as environmental stewards.”

In addition, UA can save as much as $20,000 a day by not starting the steam plant.

And wavering between heating and cooling can be problematic.

“Once we start up the plant, and switch the buildings over to heating, we cannot simply switch back to cooling,” he said. “The change-over process takes a couple of days to complete. When we experience sunny days, many buildings on campus require cooling when the outside temperatures begin to exceed 70 degrees. Most people surveyed have stated they would rather be cool than too warm.”

For reference, the following campus buildings use steam from the B.B. Comer steam plant as the only source of building heat:

  • Bureau of Mines #1
  • Bureau of Mines #2
  • Bureau of Mines #3
  • Bureau of Mines #4
  • Bureau of Mines #5
  • Doster Hall
  • Farrah Hall
  • Hardaway Hall
  • Hayden-Harris Hall
  • McLure Library
  • Rowand-Johnson Hall
  • ten Hoor Hall

These campus buildings use steam from the B.B. Comer steam plant as their primary source of building heat, but they also have a small boiler inside the building that can adequately heat the building during weather above 50 degrees:

  • Adams Hall
  • B.B. Comer Hall
  • Foster Auditorium
  • Gorgas Library
  • Graves Hall
  • Oliver-Barnard Hall
  • Reese-Phifer Hall
  • Rose Administration Building
  • Student Services Building
  • Tuomey Hall

The following residence halls use steam from the B.B. Comer steam plant as the only source of building heat:

  • Blount Hall
  • Harris Hall
  • Martha Parham Hall
  • Mary Burke Hall
  • Paty Hall