Modernizing Campus Infrastructure: Pima Community College Desert Vista Goes Tankless

Managing the facilities of a busy higher education institution like Pima Community College’s Desert Vista Campus requires a sharp focus on both operational efficiency and sustainability. With high daily foot traffic spanning restrooms, culinary areas, and specialized campus facilities, providing a consistent supply of domestic hot water is crucial. To meet these high-volume demands without committing valuable mechanical room space to bulky, traditional storage tanks, the Tucson campus embraced a modern tankless solution.

The Desert Vista Campus utilizes two high-efficiency Intellihot iN401 units. This compact configuration is engineered to handle the sudden, concentrated spikes in hot water usage that occur between classes or during peak campus hours.

By leveraging masterless cascading technology, the two units communicate seamlessly to operate as a single intelligent system. When demand is low, only one unit activates, keeping energy consumption minimal. As demand rises, the second unit effortlessly kicks in to share the load. This setup provides the campus with built-in redundancy, guaranteeing that routine maintenance on one unit will never disrupt the hot water supply for students and faculty. By eliminating hot water storage, Pima Community College significantly reduced its mechanical footprint and completely avoided the continuous energy waste of heating stagnant water 24/7