Case Study: Arbor Day Farm & Lied Conference Center

The Arbor Day Farm and Lied Conference Center is a 144,000 square foot complex located in Nebraska City, Nebraska. The Lied Conference Center has a two-boiler system that provides steam to generate hot water for space heating for bathrooms, a laundry, and a large swimming pool. This system also chills water by absorbing heat from the water through an evaporative process. The Arbor Day Farm is the only place in the world with a fuel wood plant for heating/cooling and an energy forest plantation is located at one site. This system requires more fuel than would be economical to cut from existing stock on the property. Therefore, wood chips are purchased at $20 per ton from local suppliers.

Source: Lied Lodge

System Specs

  • 45 ton storage bin
  • Augers
  • Metering system
  • IB&M 1.2 Megawatt fire tube boiler
  • IB&M 2.3 Megawatt fire tube boiler
  • Absorption chiller
  • Computerized control system
  • Scraper

Cost of System

  • Installation Cost ~ $444,924
  • Fuel costs (3,840 tons per year at $20 per ton) $76,800

Additional Information

http://arborday.org/programs/farmtour/tourdetails/21.cfm

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