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Kanawha County School

In 2005, eleven schools in Kanawha County, West Virginia were named as Exemplary Schools by the U.S. Department of Education. While teachers and students have been raising their academics, Ray Wohlfarth of Fire & Ice, Pittsburgh, PA has been lowering the school system’s fuel costs since 1996. By 2005, forty Triad boilers have been installed in eleven county school buildings, including in the State Capital of Charleston.

Update: In 2012 the District underwent a large Phase II and added 33 more boilers to fifteen schools. It was a wide variety, from small Series 300 Hot Water Boilers to large Series 1600 Steam Boilers and Series 2000 Hot Water Boilers, for Elementary Schools, Middle Schools and High Schools. This complex project was done with Johnson Controls and Fire & Ice. Kanawha County Schools now has over 73 TRIAD Boilers.

At first the department was reluctant to change from the old cast iron boilers. For each project, life-cycle cost comparisons (as shown on next page) were worked up by an independent consulting firm using DOE software. The comparisons clearly demonstrate the life-cycle cost advantage of TRIAD Boilers. After the first TRIAD installation was up and running, Mr. Bashlor was sold on the real benefits and value. The new TRIAD boilers produced steam and delivered it to the buildings much quicker than the cast iron boilers, while demonstrating improved control of the temperatures, which resulted in the promised fuel savings.

Several projects presented interesting challenges. One building that featured a very old Columbus warm air furnace -large enough to walk in -required a conversion from forced air to hydronic. Working with Johnson Controls, the furnaces were left in place but disabled. Hot water coils were installed on the discharge for each unit producing a saving in heating costs of approximately 30%.

Another project dedicated a steam to water heat exchanger for a newer wing of the school. While yet another project used TRIAD steam boilers for one wing and hot water boilers for another.

Mr. Bashlor commented; “The boilers are quite affordable, heat fast, and are very efficient. And I like the whole modular system…even if one boiler goes down, we always have heat because of the redundancy.”

Mr. Edens was quoted as saying, “The TRIAD boilers have been problem-free since their installation.

South Charleston High School

Series 1600 Steam Low Pressure Boiler

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