Maintenance and Repair Planned on University Cooling System

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Some buildings on the University of Arkansas campus may be slightly warmer than normal on Tuesday, July 1. Utility operations and maintenance crews have scheduled a repair on one of the chillers in the chilled water cooling system that provides air conditioning to many campus buildings. Technical consultants have confirmed that a bearing in the system’s Chiller No. 4 is over-heating and must be replaced before it causes more serious damage.

The chiller will be shut down at midnight, Monday, June 30; repairs will be conducted on Tuesday, July 1; and the chiller should be back in operation by approximately midnight Tuesday.

The absence of this chiller from the production system loop will affect overall chilled water volume pumped to the campus, possibly causing the more remote areas on the chilled water loop to see a minimal rise in the indoor temperature.

“There will not be a chilled water outage, and no buildings will lose their air conditioning,” said Glenn Grippe, director of business and support at university facilities management. “. Campus chilled water cooling will be provided throughout the entire planned emergency shut-down period and all our other chilled water systems will be running to make up for the loss of one major unit. However, in places such as computer labs, where temperature is critical, some precautions may be advisable.”

For additional information, please contact the Facilities Management Service Center at 575-5050.