When the Evanstonian team ventured below ETHS’s surface to investigate myths of a shooting range and dispel ghost theories last month, we did not stop there. Our mission to unearth ETHS’s mysteries took us all the way across the street: to the power plant that provides heating and cooling to the over 1,000,000 square feet of the school.
“The power plant is original to the building and over 100 years old,” explains John Crawford, Director of Operations and Sustainability at ETHS.
The large building, with towers and pipes expelling fumes from the roof and positioned opposite the school on Lake Street, is a source of intrigue for students and Evanstonians who are not quite sure what it is used for.
As we thank Crawford for his tour of the basement, he leaves the second leg of the tour to Patrick Ready, the power plant’s lead engineer, who leads us across Lake Street and to a hot and stuffy exploration.
On the outside of the building, three large radiator fans expel the heat from the heating generators inside, using water. Ready warned before going in that it might get loud, and he was right. While the basement was cold, empty and eerie, the power plant was hot, loud and bustling with activity. Stepping into the industrial, headache-inducing environment, Ready smiles looking around at the rusty pipes and grey brick walls. “This place is the life-blood of the building,” he says proudly.
ETHS operates on high-pressure steam boilers, a feature unique to the school. Most other high schools, even large ones, operate on low pressure. The boilers themselves are the same ones installed in 1966, when the building upgraded to using natural gas. “It shows the care the guys have for the building,” Crawford explains, “they take care of the equipment and make it last long.” These boilers produce steam that is then transferred to the school. This steam single-handedly heats the school and the water. Walking past a cylindrical chamber, we peered through its small window and saw a flame.
“This entire chamber [boiler] is lit up. That heats up the water to a certain temperature, which then turns into steam. The steam then travels across the street through the tunnel underneath the school and disperses itself all under the building,” explains Ready.
These boilers are handy for heating a large school, but they are also somewhat precarious if not managed correctly.
“As cool as this is, it’s extremely dangerous,” Ready explains, “If they run without water, you can have explosions.”
The winter months also prove dangerous for the power plant, and engineers are on-site 24/7 to ensure that the boilers stay intact. State inspectors come periodically to change out the safety valve, the most important valve in a boiler room. “Safety is the number one priority in this building,” Ready assures.
If ETHS ever lost power from ComEd, the electricity provider, the power plant could generate enough electricity for the entire building with three of its generators. However, Ready explains, the generators are a last-resort option, and crucial for power outage emergencies.
Emergencies have occurred at the power plant over the years, one being that when the roofing was replaced, a contractor overlooked the amount of heat the generators emitted, and installed a wood roof over the exhaust pipes, without fireproofing it. A fire started in the plant, and Crawford spotted it before it burnt down the entire building. The roofing had to be replaced again, this time with steel decking.
While having a school-specific power plant is becoming a thing of the past, Ready says that the generators in the building are energy-efficient and good for the environment. “We buy all of our electricity from Texas renewable wind farms,” he notes. ETHS is making strides to create a smaller version of the plant and shut the main power plant down, but Ready says that it will be expensive. But for now, Ready and his engineers are there to stay, ensuring that the school is properly heated, cooled and powered. The Evanstonian team left with plenty of knowledge and a thirst for a new adventure. Scan this QR code to see for yourself what the power plant looks like, and look out for another edition of Etown Explores next issue.
