B.C. Rain High | Dell Consulting LLC

B.C. Rain High School

The doors to B.C. Rain School opened on September 4, 1963, and admitted approximately 1,200 junior high and high school students. Today, B.C. Rain High School is a 126,000 SF educational facility located on Dauphin Island Parkway in Mobile, AL and serves almost 800 students in grades 9-12.

- Location: Mobile, AL
- Project Size: 126,000 SF
- Facility Type: K-12 Schools
- Owner: Mobile County Public School System
- Services: Mechanical Engineer

The school’s campus includes 9 classroom buildings, a 24,000 SF coliseum, and a central plant to support the school’s HVAC Systems. At the core of the facility’s HVAC System were two 155-Ton air-cooled chillers installed in 2011. These chillers utilized a relatively new type of condenser coil, and this emerging yet relatively unrefined innovation was at the crux of reliability and maintenance issues the client was experiencing with these chillers. In 2021 Dell Consulting provided a solution to their problem.

The solution Dell provided was a design that included replacing the two existing chillers with new ones, replacing the chilled water piping on the chiller side of the isolation valves, and integrating the two new chillers with the school’s existing Honeywell Building Automation System (BAS). The new chillers would incorporate high-grade copper tube, aluminum fin coil condensers. These type of condenser coils offer better performance, higher reliability, and an overall longer lifespan. The project included both mechanical and electrical engineering design to ensure a smooth transition to the new chillers.

The two existing 155-Ton air-cooled chillers were replaced by two 165-Ton chillers. The new chillers were piped in parallel and controlled in a lead/lag configuration. Each of the existing chilled water pumps were capable of handling 100% of the chilled water provided by both chillers running simultaneously. The pumps operated in a lead/standby configuration. The standby/backup pump operates only due to mechanical failure or service outage of the lead pump. Both pumps utilized variable frequency drives allowing them to provide the appropriate amount of chilled water required by the air handling units they served.

The electrical system serving the air-cooled chiller system was upgraded to provide power for the new air-cooled chillers and heat tracing for the new and existing chilled water piping located outside.

Chillers and boilers represent the backbone of most two and four-pipe HVAC systems. This project provided B.C. Rain School faculty and maintenance employees with a higher level of comfort regarding the reliability and quality of operation provided by the new chillers equipped with copper tube, aluminum fin condenser coils.