Penn State Installs ClearFire-LC Boilers, Increases Efficiency by Nearly 10%

Penn State Harrisburg is an undergraduate and graduate school of Pennsylvania State University. Established in 1966, the college has an enrollment of 5,200 students. When it first opened, Penn State Harrisburg relied on coal-fired boilers to heat the campus. In the 1970s, the college replaced them with steam boilers. Recently, the administration approved the utility group’s request to transition from steam to hydronic boilers to increase efficiency and decrease operational costs.

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Challenge:

Daniel Barlup, supervisor of utilities for Penn State Harrisburg, and in-house engineer said, "We didn't want a whole bunch of small boilers. We wanted bigger boilers because we would like to be able to keep adding capacity."

Another challenge was venting the boilers in the existing six-story-tall plant, which has a 50-ft.-tall stack.  

Solution:

The university selected Cleaver-Brooks ClearFire®-LC (CFLC) 8000 boilers due to their large size and the company’s reputation for engineering reliable boilers.

To overcome the challenge of the 50-ft.-tall stack, Cleaver-Brooks, set up the boilers for side-wall venting with a fan exhaust system that interlocks with the boilers. This solution saved the college a lot of money on the installation cost.

Results:

Plant efficiency has increased by about 10%, and the utilities group figured out that it is saving between a penny to a penny-and-a-half per square foot over the former steam system.

Barlup is also pleased with the reliability and durability of the CFLC boilers, adding, “They are working great, and they are bullet-proof.”

 

“We didn’t want a whole bunch of small boilers. We wanted bigger boilers because we would like to be able to keep adding capacity."

Daniel Barlup, Supervisor of Utilities, Penn State Harrisburg

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