Consultant urges pump testing, phased cooling-tower work after county building overheating problems

Aaron Woseck of Spicer Group gave the county a technical review of the building’s water-source heat-pump system and cooling tower, telling commissioners the system’s summertime overheating likely stems from inadequate pump head and the tower’s location with surrounding concrete that traps heat.

Woseck, the A&E practice lead and mechanical engineer, said the first, low-cost step should be a test-and-balance to verify pump head and flow; he said that testing would cost “less than $5,000” and could be done this summer. “If we find the pressure head is 15 feet low,” he said, “I’m pretty confident that I can improve the existing system for you.” He recommended decoupling pumps so the cooling tower has its own pumps (a primary-secondary arrangement) or, if required, replacing the cooling tower with an adiabatic design that reduces water use and maintenance and has a roughly 5–7 year payback in his estimates.

Woseck warned that roughly 90 heat pumps in the building are already about 20 years old, so the county will face ongoing replacement costs even if the tower is fixed. He recommended a phased plan: conduct the flow testing immediately under administrative spending authority, evaluate results mid-summer, then budget for capital work in future years if testing shows replacement is necessary. “You could see improvements by mid-July possibly because that would just be some piping mods and some new pumps,” he said.

Commissioners pressed for costs and timing: Woseck said the major cooling tower replacement (he cited an overall tower figure in the millions) is expensive but that preliminary testing and pump work could be done within the current year’s budget. Commissioners and staff agreed to proceed with the test-and-balance under administrative spending authority and return later with recommended capital timelines and budget figures.