Chillers installed to increase chilled water circulation

Facilities Operations and Capital Planning and Development are working to improve the underground chilled water piping loop that supplies cold water for air conditioning to buildings on the WSU Pullman campus.

Over the past five years, many steps have been taken to improve chilled water capacity, including adding new loop-connected chillers and enacting energy improvement projects on the system.



The current phase is to replace plant chillers at the Central Chilled Water Plant, located on College Avenue south of the old Engineering Laboratory Building, to increase efficiency and capacity. The project will replace old 1,000-ton chillers with new 1,500-ton chillers and upgraded cooling towers.

Chilled water is generated by chillers located at different points around campus. The chillers are connected to the chilled water loop, which circulates around campus.

The project was necessary due to aging chillers and growth of new building that required additional chilled water loads. In the past, there was not enough chiller capacity to keep every building cool during the summer. To compensate, during the summer automatic “load sheds” would take place, which caused interior building temperatures to increase 3 to 5 degrees for a time each day. The heat negatively impacted those who frequented the buildings.

Chillers will be ready for operation April 1.