USTRANSCOM uses ambient heat for main facility

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. - The average adult human body produces 100 kilocalories per hour.  This is equal to 116 watts or 400 British thermal units an hour, or roughly the amount of heat generated by a 60 watt incandescent light bulb in an hour.

Interesting you say, but why do I care?

Well, if you work at the U.S. Transportation Command on Scott Air Force Base, you may want to read on because your comfort depends on it.

The 180,000 square feet of Building 1900 that houses the command’s 2,100 bodies has no furnace to keep them warm in the winter.  Heat in the building’s east and west sections is mainly created by those bodies and the equipment, such as computer monitors that they use every day, capable of emitting up to 135 degrees.

According to Patrick White, USTRANSCOM facilities manager, there are heating elements throughout the building, in ceilings and in perimeter windows which assist in temperature control.  It’s a huge complicated system beyond the understanding of the average 60 watt bulb.

While there is no huge heat-producing furnace, there is a huge air cooling system, larger than many buildings on the base, which helps counteract those heat-producing bodies, and keep them comfortable year round.

“The temperature from the chiller plant (air conditioning system) is around 40 degrees,” White said.  “Once you get it moving through the coils, the friction brings it to 55 degrees.  The coils are actually throughout the building and variable air valves in the ceiling adjust the amount of flow into work areas.”

Most Building 1900 workers have no idea how important this cooling system is year round.  When it failed one winter day a few years ago, it didn’t take long to notice the difference.

“It happened two years ago,” White said.  “The chiller plant went down.  It was probably 35 degrees outside, and the HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) shut down.  Within a matter of an hour and a half the temperature had risen to 95 degrees in some areas.  The old operations center (prior to new facility opening in August 2010) was very, very, very hot.

“So if we didn’t have the HVAC system,” White continued, “and we functioned the way we do with the amount of people and equipment we have, the building would get above 85 degrees in an hour.”

According to Army Col. Paul Dixon, USTRANSCOM Base Realignment and Closure transformation project director, maintaining a comfortable climate in such a large building is incredibly complicated and must be balanced continually throughout the seasons.  “We applaud the hard work of our facility management folks,” Dixon said, “keeping us at the right temperature every day, throughout the year.

 -USTRANSCOM-