The uphill central heating plant, which is responsible for heating the dormitories in the area, on Sunday experienced boiler problems that caused a temporary reduction in the temperatures of many buildings.
"We did have heat in all the dorms, just at a lower rate," Director of Facilities Services Bob Burns said. "We never lost heat. We were putting out reduced heat, because we lost a boiler."
Despite the reduced heat levels in uphill dorms, the Department of Facilities Services did not receive any reports of complaints from members of the Tufts community, Burns said.
Vice President for Operations Dick Reynolds said that Facilities monitored the temperatures of the affected dorms; boiler problem did not last long enough to significantly reduce temperatures in affected buildings.
"Nothing ever got below 64 degrees," he said.
Two of the boilers used to generate heat for uphill dorms stopped working, Reynolds said. The central plant, located by the smokestack adjacent to Dowling Hall, usually runs on two out of its three boilers at a time, but on Sunday was down to just one operational boiler.
One of the boilers' pumps malfunctioned due to low−quality fuel, and the third boiler — an older piece of equipment typically reserved as a backup — would not start, Reynolds explained.
"We were unable to get fuel to one of the boilers because of a problem we're having with delivery of oil to the plant," he said. "There has been a problem with fuel delivery and quality of oil."
The inability to pump fuel to the boiler was due to both poor oil viscosity and a technical failure of the pump, according to Burns.
He said that all of the residence halls serviced by the central plant — and therefore impacted by the boiler crash — are uphill: Blakely, Carmichael, Hallowell, Hill, Hillside Apartments, Houston, Miller, West and Wren.
Reynolds said that heat in other buildings and downhill dorms is supplied by separate heating plants.
"We have a number of heating systems around the campus. So many dorms were unaffected," Burns said.
The boiler stopped functioning at approximately 9 a.m. on Sunday, Reynolds said. Facilities was notified of the problem by an alarm that goes off when a boiler goes out of service, and responded quickly to try to repair it, Burns said.
"For about 12 hours, we had people working on it all day [Sunday]," he said.
Reynolds said one of the boilers started up again around 9 p.m. the same day, and he estimates that normal heat returned to dorms by midnight. Facilities yesterday was still working on the boiler that had been experiencing pump difficulties, Reynolds said.
At approximately 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, Reynolds sent out an e−mail to let residents of affected dorms know that Facilities had restored the central plant to its standard working capacity.
To prevent future boiler problems at the central plant, Burns said that Facilities is looking into modernizing the aging equipment.
"We want to make sure we provide good service to the community," Burns said.
Reynolds said updates to the central plant are planned for this summer, while boiler replacements remain longer−term goals.
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