A day in the life of FGCU’s coolest workers
- Laurie D. Babcock
- August 2, 2024
- Faculty and Staff
- Contributors: Laurie Babcock, Photos | Christopher Noonan, Video
5 – minute read
When Joe Latorre arrives to work at Florida Gulf Coast University each morning, he checks for ice. The Staten Island native isn’t looking for it in the breakroom freezer — he wants to know whether the contents of more than 200 thermal ice storage tanks on campus froze overnight.
“We send a 24-degree mixture of water and glycol overnight that freezes the water in the ice tanks. So at the hottest part of the day, we don’t have to use the chillers, just cooled air,” the HVAC supervisor says.
In addition to ice storage tanks, FGCU has chillers, which remove heat and chill the water to cool and dehumidify buildings. Air conditioning units suffice for smaller buildings, but a centralized system with chillers is more cost-effective for cooling a still-growing campus.
Most members of the FGCU community take things like air conditioning for granted, but staff like Latorre and his HVAC crew work every day to help ensure a comfortable and safe environment for learning and working. The routine contributions of many unsung workers are vital to the overall success of the institution.
Keeping it cool on campus
After checking the ice storage reports, Latorre’s daily routine involves a visual inspection.
“The computer can only tell you so much,” he says. He learned HVAC systems on the job, having previously worked for 15 years in New York as a hotel engineer.
Behind the central energy plant, Latorre walks under the cooling towers for each chiller and between 236 ice storage tanks. He checks for leaks at the base and corrosion at the top, weaving between rows of tanks. To keep campus cool, pumps send the chilled water out to the buildings and bring it back in a constant loop. Because ice is made overnight, the central energy plant’s four chillers can be shut off between noon and 9 p.m. every day.
“The chillers are our main energy consumption, so when there’s ice, we’re not using the chillers at all during the day,” Latorre says. He estimates the ice storage tanks provide more than 90% of the cooled air used by 26 of FGCU’s main campus buildings. While the renewable energy provided by the tanks aligns with the university’s sustainability mission, their use also equates to budgetary savings.
“There is the time of use electrical rate we get from FPL (Florida Power & Light) which is a highly discounted monthly rate, as well as rebate funds when we add ice tanks as we expand campus buildings,” says Jim Hehl, associate vice president of physical plant. “We have one of the largest ice storage farms in the U.S., and we reinvest the rebates into more tanks or other energy conservation measures around campus.”
In addition to those at the central energy plant, FGCU has 21 tanks at Alico Arena and six at the Emergent Technologies Institute (ETI), FGCU’s 6.5-acre research-and-development complex off Alico Road. Hehl estimates ice storage saves the university as much as $400,000 annually with FPL’s time of use rate program.
The people occupying campus buildings can’t distinguish the difference between air cooled by AC units, chillers or the ice storage tanks. When everything works properly, it all feels like traditional air conditioning. If a problem arises, FGCU employees know whom to call — work management center staff in FGCU’s physical plant are on the front lines of campus maintenance.
On the front lines of maintenance
As an early summer heat wave tore through the country in June, breaking daily temperature records from Chicago to Maine, the coldest spot on the FGCU campus appeared to be a fourth-floor laboratory in Academic Building 9. A professor had called in the issue the day before and HVAC technician Comfort Chisholm responded early one morning to check it out.
Using a handheld temperature and humidity sensor, he measured the room temperature at 58.2 degrees. (According to the Fort Myers native, the “sweet spot” for campus facilities is 76 degrees.) Chisholm called Latorre and they headed to the home of The Water School to investigate the cause of the drastic temperature drop and save the algae experiments being conducted in the lab from the frigid conditions. It was a unique challenge for the two workers, as they checked ductwork for signs of malfunction, ultimately identifying a damper as the culprit.
Latorre, Chisholm and their coworkers are responsible for keeping up roofs, solar panels, elevators, building lighting and emergency generators. They use the summer months when there are fewer people on campus for upgrades including replacing roofs and interior lighting. In addition to addressing daily work orders, they also perform scheduled preventative maintenance on HVAC systems.
“It’s always easier to do maintenance when no one’s around. Most of the time, we’ll do our air handlers at night because to really do them properly, we have to shut them off,” Latorre says. His staff are on campus seven days a week.
“Our primary role is HVAC but because we cover long hours, we have to know a little bit of everything, just in case,” Chisholm says. “We know about leaks and doors and locksmith stuff, and sometimes we have to deal with the fire department for a sensor that may have read something wrong. We cover those things, too.”
From maintaining facilities and systems to addressing everyday issues and solving problems before they escalate, staff are the backbone of the university. FGCU’s campus couldn’t run without technicians like Latorre, Chisholm and the rest of the HVAC crew who thrive in the practical landscape of maintenance work. Often behind the scenes, their work ensures a safe, functional and welcoming environment — a cool campus — for everyone.