Castleton University is a public university located in Western Vermont with an enrollment of around 2,000 students. Originally dating back to 1787, the 165 acre campus has 21 buildings and was in need of mechanical insulation upgrades to increase their overall efficiency.
Efficiency VT worked with Castleton Facilities and had NCMI perform a mechanical space walkthrough and mechanical insulation energy appraisal to determine which areas would have the best payback period for the insulation. After the appraisal, NCMI worked in the below areas:
Each building posed its own unique challenges, from small repairs, preserving the existing insulation, to demoing and reinsulating piping and equipment with removable insulation covers.
Steam and Condensate piping and equipment often has the best payback period due to its high temperature and cost of fuel. To keep costs lower, NCMI used fiberglass pipe covering with thicknesses ranging from 2” thick to ½” thick based on temperature and available space. For the removables we used stainless steel components, high temperature ceramic blanket with high temperature silicone/fiberglass cloth to withstand the steam temperatures in some cases over 300⁰F. For this particular project we made the removables onsite.
Other areas like the Fine Arts building had chilled water piping, to prevent mold and mildew, NCMI repaired the existing vapor barrier on the ASJ jacketing before the pipe cover became waterlogged and further damaged.
The payback period for the Castleton project was less than 1.6 years, making the decision to hire NCMI an easy one!
To schedule an energy appraisal reach out to our Sr. Energy Analyst, Eric Simpson at eric@ncmiinc.com