Areas of potential Army use

There are a number of Army installations in the United States. They break down into several general types: Introductory troop training, General troop installations, Proving Grounds, Depots, and Arsenals. The installations that emphasize the training and support of troops have a large number of housing units and corresponding dining facilities. Both of these types of buildings have a high domestic hot water use and are good candidates for solar hot systems. All Army installations have recreational and health care facilities, which also could be large domestic hot water users. The administration, maintenance, training, storage, manufacturing, and service facilities are typically low domestic hot water users and thus are poor candidates for a central solar hot water system to heat their domestic water.

Air-conditioning system reheat for humidity control is another year-round heating energy use and thus is a candidate for a solar hot water system. Humidity control is required in some administration, data processing, communication, and health care buildings. To accomplish this control, the air in the air-conditioning system is chilled to a low temperature for moisture removal. This air is normally too cold to introduce into occupied spaces so it is reheated to a more comfortable temperature. The energy to accomplish this reheat is a good candidate for the heat provided by a solar hot water system.

Building profiles found at the different types of Army installations are:

• Army Introductory Troop Training Sites (Fort Benning, Fort Jackson, and Fort Sill)
  
  • High density barracks and lodging
  • Dining facilities
  • Administration buildings
  • Company Operation Facility (COF)
  • Maintenance facilities (motor pools, aircraft wash areas, car washes)
  • Recreational (Fitness centers, pools)
  • Training
  • Healthcare
  • Service (Fire and police stations, PX, AAFES)
  • Storage
  • Central heating plants
• Army Troop Locations (Fort Bragg, Fort Campbell, etc.)
  
  • Barracks and lodging
  • Dining facilities
  • Administration buildings
  • Company Operation Facility (COF)
  • Maintenance facilities (motor pools, aircraft wash areas, car washes)
  • Recreational (fitness centers, pools)
  • Training
  • Healthcare
  • Service (fire and police stations, PX, AAFES)
  • Storage
• Army Proving Grounds
  
  • Research and manufacturing buildings
  • Lodging
  • Storage facilities
  • Administration buildings
  • Recreational (fitness centers, pools)
  • Healthcare
  • Maintenance facilities (motor pools, aircraft wash areas, car washes)
  • Service (fire and police stations, PX, AAFES)
• Army Depots
  • Research and manufacturing buildings
  • Lodging
  • storage facilities
  • Administration buildings
  • Recreational (fitness centers, pools)
  • Maintenance facilities (motor pools, aircraft wash areas, car washes)
  • Service (fire and police stations, PX, AAFES)
• Army Arsenals and Ammunition Plants
  
  • Manufacturing buildings
  • Lodging
  • Storage facilities
  • Administration buildings
  • Recreational (fitness centers, pools)
  • Maintenance facilities (motor pools, aircraft wash areas, car washes)
  • Healthcare
  • Service (fire and police stations, PX, AAFES)

The size of these installations can be small with as few as 50 occupied buildings. Others are very large, having a population more than 70,000 people. Some are in very cold climates and others in extremely hot/humid climates. A better description of each can be obtained by doing a internet web search on a specific installation.

There is no “average size” Army installation; they have grown over time to serve a number of different needs. Perhaps the best way to approach Army building groups is to look at what the Army is doing now. The Army has recently standardized on a grouping of buildings to support the supervising, housing, and training of combat troops. The troops are organized into a Brigade size fighting unit and thus is called a Brigade Combat Team (BCT). The group of buildings are arranged in a manner shown in Figure 4.1. Looking at this layout, the BCT consist of Barracks (light blue) with a Dining Facility (purple) in the middle. Then the Headquarter Building (orange) is  close by on a through street. South of this street are green buildings called Company Operation Facilities (COF) and red buildings called Tactical Equipment Maintenance Facilities (TEMF). The total building floor space is about 1,402,000 sq ft (130,386 m2), which is divided into Barracks with 567,000 sq ft (52,731 m2), Dining Facility with 31,000 sq ft (2,883 m2), Tactical Equipment Maintenance with 229,000 sq ft (21,297 m2), Company Operation Facilities with 447,000 sq ft (41,571 m2), and 129,000 sq ft (11,997 m2) for the Headquarters building.

The buildings that have the major DHW heating requirements are the barracks and the dining facility. Some healthcare and recreational facilities also have a high DHW heating need. The rest of the buildings have a very small DHW heating requirement that is most often satisfied with small local heaters. As can be seen below there are 11 barracks buildings and one dining facility in the BCT cluster. The average barracks size is 51,500 sq ft (4790 m2). Each barracks will house ~260 soldiers. The dining facility is 31,000 sq ft (2880 m2).

The heating of these buildings can be from a central source such as a boiler plant that serves the entire installation or a group of buildings within the installation. Another method often seen is individual boilers in each building with one for heating the building and the other for generating DHW. Even with a central boiler system heating the DHW is often by local building boiler equipment.

Few Army installations have a cogeneration system where both electricity and heating hot water are generated in the central plant. Most Army central boiler plants provide heating only and thus it can be desirable to turn this system off during the nonheating season. About half the central systems are steam distributed at a pressure in the range of 60 to 100 psi (414 to 689 kPa). the others are hot water with temperatures as hot as 400 °F (204 °C).

The most common system is the use of local heating systems within a building. In this case DHW is generated using a hot water boiler. The next most likely situation is a central heating system that is used to heat the buildings, but the DHW is generated by a hot water boiler as above.