A Little Background on the Challenges of Heating and Cooling
| Building temperatures are kept at 70 degrees during heating season. Air conditioned buildings are kept at 74 degrees during cooling season. |
One of the most challenging times of year for Physical Facilities is the transition between the cooling season and the heating season and back again. Why is it so challenging? Because switching buildings from one mode to another, with a limited staff, is not an easy process and customers are sometimes too warm or too cold depending on when the switch occurs and if the weather cooperates. "The heating and cooling systems in the buildings on this campus represent forty years of technology," said Dick Thompson, who supervises the Refrigeration Department for Operations. Depending on the system, the heating/cooling transition can be easy and relatively fast, or difficult and somewhat time consuming.
In most buildings the transition from heating to cooling or the reverse is more than a matter of flipping a switch. In the Administration Building for example, the cooling tower must be drained of water in the fall and filled again in the spring after temperatures are consistently above freezing. This is a process that can take a day or more and involves workers manually opening and closing valves, spinning pumps and checking vacuum seals in the absorption machine to make sure the system will run properly once it is started. There are only five employees to perform these tasks in the dozens of buildings on campus that have the capacity to heat and cool.
Traditionally, the conversions take place in the fall around Columbus Day and in the spring around April 15. Because weather patterns are changing, the department has been reviewing the traditional start times to see if any adjustments are needed. The most difficult times are the "shoulder" periods or days when it might start out in the 30’s in the morning and rise to 80 by afternoon. "For energy conservation and other reasons you don’t want to heat a building and then spend the day trying to cool it," said Thompson.
Another factor that can complicate the process is how the building is physically situated. In the winter, classrooms or offices on the south side of a building might be comfortable or too warm while those on the north side are too cold because there is less exposure to the sun.
With limited staff, Physical Facilities must prioritize which buildings receive attention first during these transition periods. When shifting from heating to cooling in the spring, priority buildings include Science III/IV, the Library and the Anderson Center. The buildings are priorities because of the nature of the work and/or activities underway in the facilities. In the fall, providing heat to residential halls is high on the priority list. "It is very expensive to construct a system that can handle the tricky "shoulder" periods," said Mike McCabe, Assistant Director of Engineering Services. "If a project is over budget during design, it’s often the first thing that must be sacrificed in order to secure the project."
Physical Facilities does its best during these times with the resources at hand. To report any problems with heating or cooling (if your building is air conditioned), contact the Physical Facilities Customer Service Center at 7-2226.
