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Main campus heating to remain shut down for up to 4 more weeks
The Advocate
Mt. Hood Community College will be without heat until Oct. 15, after three boilers that provide heat for the Main Academic Center were removed in late July to make room for 10 new boilers.
“I’m going to wear more winter gear and pretend it’s winter term, but if it’s all to be greener then I’m all for it. Everybody needs to put their part for it,” said Alex Gudarenko, a student at MHCC.
These new energy-efficient boilers will be a better heat source for the buildings, according to Director of Facilities Management Richard Byers. Solar panels will also be installed in the Aquatic Center to provide heat.
Another energy saving addition is motion sensor lightings being installed in classrooms.
Although MHCC is trying to save energy, this project will cost $10.7 million to install energy-efficient boilers, solar panels and facets, motion detector lights, coolers and chillers along with more ways to improve energy consumption.
“We entered an energy performance contract, so the students can study energy consumption,” said Byers. This means that MHCC will get a $1.2 million Energy Trust of Oregon tax credit and $1.2 million Business Energy tax credit for the upgrades.
“The project is 54 percent complete and we are one month ahead of schedule,” said Byers.
The cooling towers and the chillers will be demolished in November, according to Byers. And in January, the new cooling tower will be installed and working by May.
The overall project should be done by summer 2010, according to Dick Byers. It takes $1.6 million annually to power the Mt. Hood Community College campus.
But that will soon change due to new boilers and solar panels being installed to provide heat and save $600,000 per year, said Byers.
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