The school was wise to recognize--more than 50 years ago--that a central heating system was more efficient than dozens of independent furnaces burning across campus, and although the steam lines and boilers have required plenty of maintenance, valving and retrofitting over the decades, the system is still economically sound. With oil prices expected to skyrocket in the future, we have now invested a couple of million dollars in upgrades that promise to pay for themselves over years to come. Today, a new biomass furnace feeds an expanded system of steam lines, and the emission from the "smokestack" is clean water vapor, not the sooty fumes of #4 fuel oil. Until this week, campus was gutted with a ditch, as new, high-tech, insulated steam lines linked more facilities to the network. It started under this walkway in September:
Then it cut right through North Street, seen healed today.
Next, the ditch obliterated the walkway leading from Proctor Pond up to the dining room and Farrell Field House, which--this week--will be heated with steam for the first time!
When the Alice and David Fowler Learning Center was envisioned, designed and constructed in 1993-94, the site was simply off the steam network, and this fabulous facility has been heated with its own #2 oil furnace for fifteen years.
What we could not imagine, then, was the technological progress that makes a wood chip boiler so cost-effective, as well as a community-wide commitment to sustainability and carbon neutrality (as articulated in Proctor's Environmental Mission Statement.)
Judy Preston helps psychology students with information retrieval.
The class from the mezzanine level.
And so the Learning Center, too, is now heated with steam from the biomass boiler. This is not to say that heating dozens of buildings with wood chips is cheap..... The Fowler Learning Center is one of the largest, (and most beautiful) buildings in the entire region, and during a recent cold snap, the auger that draws chips into the new furnace demanded 1600 pounds of wood IN ONE HOUR!
Now, this page is turning into a tribute to the Fowler Learning Center. Upstairs, (in the warmth of steam heat!) is Proctor's prototypic Learning Skills Department.
Also in the LC is College Counseling.
So much for the story of steam. Now, let's get to some of the outrageous photos you have come to expect. This one is called, "Friends of Jimmy Campbell."
Moments later, this is "Friends of Max Ettenborough."
Nick, in the white cap, says, "My mom wants to see me on Chuck's Corner." Well, I can solve THAT problem....
