HHB served as the Mechanical, Plumbing, and Fire Protection (MPFP) Engineer of Record for the new 20,000-square-foot Resource Center at Southern Union State Community College. The facility houses the campus library, meeting spaces, and other student support functions and is located adjacent to a campus lake.
The building utilizes a closed loop lake source heat pump system for heating and cooling. Approximately 30,000 feet of geothermal piping was installed within the lake to serve as the heat source and heat sink for the system. Water source heat pumps located throughout the building are connected to the lake loop through a central pumping system. Dedicated outdoor air units provide ventilation for the facility, with CO₂ based demand control ventilation in densely occupied spaces.
The project’s innovative lake source heat pump system was featured in a peer reviewed article co-authored by HHB engineers and published in the April 2018 edition of ASHRAE Journal, one of the HVAC industry’s premier technical peer-reviewed publications.
The project was completed in 2016.
See link below to read the full ASHRAE Journal Article. The article was co-authored by Dr. Steve Kavanaugh, Professor Emeritus at the University of Alabama. The Technical Feature, titled, “Resource Center Surface Water Heat Pump System” discusses the success, design process, and lessons learned for the lake source heating and cooling system at the Resource Center at Southern Union State Community College in Wadley, Alabama.
or, you may watch the individual videos at the links below:
