The University of Waterloo has determined that replacement of the 1,060 Ton centrifugal chiller and related infrastructure, including pumps, cooling tower and piping, located in the Physics Building-4 due to age and reliability concerns, as well as potential cooling capacity shortfalls.
Stantec was retained in 2017 to investigate chiller and cooling tower replacement options to increase capacity to 1,500 Tons, complete with a free cooling option on the chiller, to achieve operational and energy savings. Also, due to space limitations it was determined that only a single centrifugal chiller could be accommodated within the existing chiller room.
Pre-tendering of the chiller and cooling tower equipment is necessary in order to meet the installation time line. As a result, the equipment needs to be delivered to site by August 2018. After review of available alternatives, the specific chiller and cooling tower equipment in the pre-tender purchase herein has been identified as offering the most favorable combination of benefits including performance, energy efficiency and operating cost, reliability, serviceability, physical compatibility with existing site conditions and constraints, and initial cost.
