Chilling Stations

The Chilling Stations provide cooling for approximately 12 million square feet of the main campus buildings. There are four Chilling Stations scattered around campus. These, along with the Power Plant, are the buildings you can see "steam" rising from on cold days. The "steam" is actually water that has evaporated from the Chilling Stations' cooling towers. That water is the final step in the process that carries heat away from the buildings, thus keeping them cool.

It is interesting to note that even on the coldest day of the year, the cooling load on campus is approximately 6,000 Tons. This is enough to cool about 1,600 average size homes on the hottest days of the year. The combined firm cooling capacity of the Chilling Stations is approximately 35,800 tons; enough to cool about 9,000 average size homes. There are 38 dedicated people that maintain and operate this service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to the campus community.