The Agricultural Science Building is one of many buildings that houses the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resource programs. The roots of the college go back over 100 years to the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts which later became the University of Hawaiʻi. Today the work of agricultural scientists continues from experimental fields to laboratories and computers.
The original building was completed in 1995 and upgraded in 2015 as part of a maintenance project to replace the failing HVAC system. The replacement included a highly efficient solar water reheating system, a fixed speed chiller plant, adaptable variable speed interior air conditioning controls. The upgraded air conditioning controls were engineered to regulate temperature and humidity peak loads in the midday summer as well as lighter loads during morning and evenings especially during cooler months.
Maintainability, energy efficiency and flexibility were design goals for the new system.
Improvements included many energy efficient features such as:
- Variable primary chilled water and condenser system.
- Extra effort was made to select energy efficient equipment in all areas of the project
- Solar hot water panels were installed for Hydronic reheating to reduce fossil fuel use
- Custom control algorithms were programmed to control the system to operate at peak efficiencies.
