Montgomery Central Middle School Clarksville, Tennessee

What is Off-Peak Cooling (OPC)? CALMAC’s Off-Peak Cooling systems (OPC) utilize a standard packaged chiller to produce ice during the night and store it in modular ICEBANK® thermal-energy storage tanks. The stored ice provides cooling the following day to meet the building’s air-conditioning requirement.

Why should administrators and engineers consider OPC for education facilities?

• Provides school administrators with a payback as little as one year, and improved cash flows for the life of the facility that can add up to millions.
• Off-peak cooling is an important part of a high-performance, sustainable design.
• Provides a demand-responsive cooling system with fuel-source flexibility in an unregulated energy market.
• Aside from the economic benefits, OPC also improves classroom comfort by lowering humidity levels.
• The savings can be invested toward further improving student education.

CALMAC has partnered with hundreds of schools and universities to provide OPC systems that drive down energy costs faced by school systems. Because of budgetary constraints and an effort for school systems to be as cost efficient as possible, educational facilities are ideal candidates for simple, cost-saving, off-peak cooling systems.

A good example is the Montgomery Central Middle School in Clarksville, Tennessee. An engineering analysis determined that the school’s peak cooling load was 190 tons, and the load could be met with a 100-ton chiller as part of a partial-storage OPC system from CALMAC.

The smaller-sized 100-ton chiller now works in conjunction with five CALMAC ICEBANK tanks to cool the building during the on-peak daytime hours, and the system stores ice for the next day during the off-peak nighttime hours.

We also encourage you to fill out our thermal storage analysis form, and a member of our team will contact you with an evaluation of your facility.

Within this site you can learn more about CALMAC’s OPC systems and the specific benefits that this type of HVAC system can provide for you.