Pitch made for chiller retrofit

Jay County Commissioners heard a presentation this morning to upgrade the compressor on the courthouse chiller by installing a frictionless rotor system.

Roger Kochersperger of Havel Brothers, Fort Wayne, presented the commissioners with a proposal to install the retrofit compressors, which operate by utilizing a magnetically levitated rotor and which, he says, would reduce energy consumption and costs.

"We run on what we call a magnetic bearing," Kochersperger explained. "By being able to do this, we eliminate the oil."

Normally, compressors require oil to reduce friction built up as the internal parts rotate. Through levitation, however, those parts would essentially float within the compressor.

The magnetic levitation allows the compressor to operate without friction and therefore also spin at higher revolutions per minute. The system, Kochersperger said, also starts up with an energy draw of only 1.6 amps and would reduce operating electric usage by about 35 percent.

The smallest system Kochersperger said his company works with is a 60 ton chiller, which could cost around $75,000 to retrofit.

However, due to energy savings, the system pays for itself over time. Neither the commissioner nor Kochersperger knew the exact size of the chiller at the courthouse.

"We're seeing a payback ... usually in about three years," he said.

Since the equipment is also energy efficient, Kochersperger said there is the possibility to obtain grant funding for a replacement.

The commissioners and attorney Bill Hinkle had questions about the magnetic system's reliability and maintenance involved.

Kochersperger said due to the compressor running with no oil, overall maintenance on the chiller would decrease, only requiring occasional cleaning and replacement of capacitors every 10 years.

He said that there have been "very, very few failures" in the magnetic systems since its development in Australia 12 years ago.

The compressor "monitors (the magnetic field) 100,000 times a second" and generates enough power to backfeed until it can safely shut down in the case of power failure to the building.

The commissioners told Kochersperger to speak with courthouse superintendent Roger McBride to get information about the chiller system in the building. They also spoke briefly with jail construction supervisor Jeff Badders of SchenkelShultz to see if the magnetic system might be appropriate for the Jay County Jail expansion, which is installing a new chiller system as part of the renovation.

In other business this morning, the commissioners:

•Elected officers for 2010. The commissioners voted to retain the current officers, Milo Miller Jr., president, Faron Parr, vice president, and Jim Zimmerman, drainage board president.

•Spoke with Purdue Cooperative Extension director John Knipp about a $1,500 bill received for phone repairs. Knipp said his office called to have a dead phone replaced and that a serviceman was at the office for about 15 minutes replacing the equipment.

The bill states that two phones were replaced and several hours of labor were accumulated during the service call. The commissioners will be contacting the phone company to discuss the bill.[[In-content Ad]]