Virginia Schools Seek Sustainable Solutions for Aging Boilers
Starting back in early 2020 the Lee County Public School District in Jonesville, Virginia started exploring the possibility of replacing some boilers in their schools. All the school’s boilers were running on coal-fired boilers, which suffered from lower operating inefficiencies with coal heating and higher maintenance on aging boilers. Some of the boilers were almost 40-years old.
Grants Support Educational Relief
During the Spring of 2020, the pandemic struck, which led us to think the opportunity to replace these boilers would be put on the back burner. However, the U.S. Department of Education started issuing what is known as ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds which was part of the Governmental CARES Act to address the impact of COVID-19 to LEA’s (Local Education Agencies).
Low Emissions Steam Boilers Selected
As part of these 3 grants, the Lee County School Board was able to secure funds to replace the aging boiler systems in some of their main schools. The project scope includes the removal of a total of five coal-fired boilers from three schools being, Jonesville Elementary, Lee High School and Lee County Career and Technical Center. In return, six new natural gas/propane boilers are being installed including a combination of Cleaver-Brooks ClearFire-CE condensing boilers and ClearFire-H steam boilers. The condensing boilers are capable of 96% efficiency, while the steam boilers are up to 85% efficient. Both boilers provide <20 ppm NOx and will far outweigh a 40-year old coal boiler on emissions and operating efficiencies.
Other projects include replacing hot water source pumps and failing heating and cooling piping at the High School and Career Tech Center.
Working closely with the Director of Schools and the Maintenance Department, we adjusted our schedules to coincide with the beginning of the school year. We needed to negate the disturbance of the day-to-day operations of the schools. Boiler Supply will upgrade an inefficient, aging system and have heat available to the schools before the onset of winter.
Learn more on the ClearFire Boilers
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