Product Solutions
Jan 1, 2008 12:00 PM
The district worked with BLRB Architects to design a building that not only fosters and supports learning, but also meets the state's sustainability goals. When it came time to choose a floor covering for the new school, the district and architect stayed with what had worked for so long. C&A, a Tandus brand, had supplied the school with Powerbond carpet in 1981, and that same carpet was still performing in 2005.
“My 36 years of experience with Powerbond carpets has been great,” says Ken Price, director of buildings and grounds. “The product has a 25-year warranty for a reason. We, in the Tacoma School District, have had this product in our classrooms for over 30 years without a problem.”
The school participated in C&A's buy-back recycling program, which offers customers financial incentives to return and recycle any post-consumer, vinyl-backed carpet, regardless of original manufacturer, into 100 percent recycled content backing for new floorcoverings. An educational element was gained when school representatives, students and the building design team were able to travel to Dalton, Ga., to watch the recycling process happen. The students were able to see the carpet from their old building recycled into a new product.
Circle 314 for more information ▪ freeproductinfo.net/asu
Boiler upgrade
University improves underground hot water heating system
AERCO. Clayton State University, Morrow, Ga., had needed an upgrade in its central plant for years. The underground hot water heating system, installed in 1968, had become obsolete and was delivering uneven heating in many campus buildings. The design team chose to replace the system with AERCO's Benchmark boilers.
The project posed several challenges. The university and Georgia Board of Regents gave the design team only a few months to complete a project that was decades in the making. Also, although the underground hot water heating system had many problems, the funds available required the design team to focus only on the major equipment, such as boiler, chillers and pumps.
The boiler plant had to operate at unusually low supply water temperatures of between 110°F and 130°F. The boiler's condensing design would enable it to withstand these low return water temperatures without any primary or secondary piping. Plus, the boiler could deliver up to 96 percent operating efficiency under these conditions because of its 20:1 turndown.
Another benefit of the boiler is that it readily would support the college's move to a variable primary flow design that was part of the overall project. Designed to support up to 350 GPM, the boiler is especially suited to variable flow and low-flow conditions. In fact, it even can operate under no-flow conditions.
Space in the central plant was another critical issue for the design team, which had to make sure the renovation satisfied the college's existing requirements, yet still left room for additional boiler capacity. The boiler's small footprint allowed for five boilers to be installed in order to meet the present demand and left enough space for two more units to be added when necessary.
Circle 315 for more information ▪ freeproductinfo.net/asu
