That's an interesting observation, Mike. The original building was constructed in 1995, complete with it's own chiller plant. The main school campus is handled by two chiller units with several ice storage units. I'm guessing the thought was since the
auditorium usage would center around non-peak hours for the main chiller plant, it would make sense to have it on its own
system since the main chiller switches over to make ice for the night around 8 or 9pm.
In or around 2007, they made an addition of a band room and ancillary offices and practice rooms to the back of the
auditorium, but also added that facility to the chilled water loop of the
auditorium plant. This was still the aging chiller from 1995. As far as I know, the band room addition is
fed by the same exterior
transformer and is not shared on our main distribution panel in the
auditorium. At least there's no
disconnect labeled band room in our mech rooms anyway. The interesting thing is the lights dim over there as well when the chiller
compressor starts.
So maybe 2016 or 2017 we finally made the cut to replace the old chiller with the upgraded one. No ice plant, but just a regular chilled water on demand setup, still feeding the band room. It is then theoretically possible that they went with a chiller with greater capacity, knowing that the original one might not have had that built in since the addition was not done until almost a decade after the original construction? That's speculation. Going from what you all have been saying about the
feeder, I'm given to wonder if this is not an issue in the underground
conduit? We have had a number of water intrusion issues over the years as well
as lightning damage frying data lines in the underground runs. A faulty
conductor under the slab seems like a potential issue here. In any event, this is all good food for thought. I'm going to submit another work order on Monday and get in touch with my county electrician friend. I'm hoping he's looking for rabbits to
chase as well right now. I'll keep the thread updated as I find out more!