HARLINGEN — Usually we await our monthly summer electric bill with a bit of dread in the Rio Grande Valley.
But Valley International Airport officials are actually looking forward to their next bill, the first since their new HVAC system has been up and running.
The airport replaced its cooling towers and 11 air handlers in installing a completely new HVAC system.
“I’ve not yet received a bill for the replacement of the air handlers,” Bryan Wren, assistant director of aviation, said this week. “Because we’re pre-cooling the air now before it hits the big box, instead of running at 100 percent to cool it, we’re now barely hitting 40 percent.
“It’s going to be a huge savings,” he added.
The new HVAC system is one of nine major projects the airport has embarked upon in the last year or two.
Wren says already VIA is seeing a significant electricity savings by replacing every fixture in the airport with LED bulbs.
“To date, we’ve seen approximately a $40,000 reduction in our electrical bills — that’s what it will amount to at $3,500 a month,” he said. “That is only for the LED lighting replacement we’ve done.”
Strolling through the airport this week under the glass atrium, the air seemed cooler than it used to be, and Wren said it’s because the new system is more efficient at keeping humidity lower.
“For the first time since I’ve been here, my lobby’s actually cool, you can hang out there in the middle of August,” he said.
The airport also installed a new cooling tower.
“It’s 100 percent made of Fiberglas, that way there’s absolutely zero corrosion that can happen, plus there’s no wood so we don’t have to worry about termites,” Wren said.
In addition, the airport installed new electrical disconnects, fuse-bolted breakers that reduce the risks of dangerous arc-flashing. They even have a third, extra breaker in case one goes down.
In the end, Wren said the improvements to the airport will make it more pleasant, and safer, and a lot more efficient.
“I will roughly say the whole project lighting and HVAC — I’m comfortable conservatively saying it’ll easily be between $80,000 and $100,000 a year in savings,” he said. “The engineers are telling me closer to $140,000.”
