The PAC: Sweat, Blood, and Renewable Energy

I'd like to take you on a brief tour of the sustainability initiatives being taken at Furman's PAC, where everyday we're reducing waistlines and energy bills at the same time! The PAC will be the focal point of my section of a student video project being put together by the ECOS members. To begin, all wastewater from the PAC is drained directly to Furman's "Living Machine," a small scale water treatment facility that uses plants to clean almost all waste from the water coming in so it can be pumped back to the PAC for use as toilet water. On the roof, the PAC houses Furman's largest solar panel array, as well as a solar thermal heating system. The photovoltaic cells generate up to 95 kW of clean energy, and the heating system provides the facility its hot water. The last stop on the tour, and probably  my favorite part of the PAC, are the elliptical machines that use a system called ReRev to capture heat energy from the movement of the machines and convert it into pure PAC power.