Annual air-conditioning costs lowered by more than half

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The annual operating and maintenance costs for air-conditioning nine Mt. Lebanon schools would be less than half of the amount previously estimated, school board members learned Monday.

Revised estimates place the cost of operations and maintenance at about $60,300 annually, including $31,698 in energy costs, Richard Marciniak, district director of facilities, told the board.

Mr. Marciniak previously pegged the cost at about $130,000 per year, using a cost-per-square-foot method. Instead, engineers from Trane, which is designing the project to add air conditioning to the district’s seven elementary and two middle schools, said the cost should be based on the size of chiller units in each school. That varies depending on the size of the building.

The district’s high school is the only school building that currently has air conditioning.

The annual cost estimate is based on nine weeks of use per year, said Doug Campbell, account manager for Trane.

Superintendent Timothy Steinhauer said air conditioners won’t be used during the summer months in most of the schools. Summer enrichment programs will be consolidated in one school, he said.

Mr. Campbell said that infrastructure can be installed to separate air conditioning into different zones within some of the buildings.

Temperatures in the classrooms can be regulated between 68 degrees and 74 degrees, he said. The units have a life expectancy of about 22 years.

Last month, the board approved spending up to $260,000 for engineering reports for the project, estimated to cost between $5.6 million and $6.1 million. The money is expected to come from a capital project fund balance.

The board is expected to make a final decision by December, and if approved, work on the schools could begin as early as spring, Mr. Steinhauer said.

“We will start as soon as we can,” he said.