BOZEMAN — On cold days like we've been having lately, many Montana State University students are really just trying to get to campus as fast as possible and warm up. But a lot goes into keeping MSU warm, and it all starts in a century-old building.
Megan James is the Director of Engineering and Utilities at MSU; she oversees the team that runs the historic heating plant on campus.
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“Heating campus is no small feat on a day like today or the week that we're going to have,” says James.
The century-old building began to keep campus warm using coal, but new methods have since come along.
“Originally was built to use coal and now we're using natural gas. So it evolves as technologies evolve,” says James. “We've been heating campus with steam produced from natural gas for 100 years.”
With high temperatures in the teens, the amount of steam produced in the boilers is enough to heat 1,000 homes in Bozeman.
“We were producing about 90,000 pounds per hour out of this plant and distributing that throughout campus,” says James.
While Montana State produces its own heat, that doesn’t mean it can do it all alone.
“Even though we're producing our own steam, we do need utilities from someone like NorthWestern,” says James.
As campus continues to see new growth James’ team is looking ahead to keep new buildings warm.
“Most of our new buildings are using a combination of some steam here from the heating plant for heating, and then also some newer technologies like geothermal energy and heat pumps,” says James.
