School Climate Debate

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Lauren Klapper

How many times have you complained about being too cold in school today? In the last week? In the last month? The answer is probably too many to count. You probably believe the school temperature should be changed, because it’s a distraction to your learning and you’re simply uncomfortable in class every day.

How much do you know about how the school’s HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system works? Probably not much at all.

First, the industrial HVAC system at the school works much differently than the  one in your home. Instead of putting a temperature into the system and expecting it to remain that way, the school’s system requires you to enter setpoints that the system will stay within a two degree variance of.

The occupied heating and occupied cooling setpoints are different in the summer and winter months. However, one of the setpoints must always be 70 degrees because the school’s Custom Energy contract requires them to keep temperatures within a “green” energy standard.

As simple as this sounds, there are many problems that keep the HVAC system from functioning well.

The HVAC system never stops blowing air because it’s designed to reduce carbon dioxide in the rooms. The units will blow air, even if it’s too hot or too cold, directly from the roof until the rooms are outside of the two-degree variance. Once they fall out of the two-degree variance, the room units will heat or cool the air before it enters the room.

The commons area, which frequently feels cooler than the rest of the school, is controlled by a unit that allows for only minimal regulation of the temperature. Also due to the fact that hot air rises, the warmer air often occupies the high ceilings of the commons area and the cooler air remains below where the students are.

Lastly, every person has a different temperature at which they feel comfortable. This is due to students dressing in varying degrees of clothing accompanied by the fact that every individual’s body perceives temperature in it’s own way.

So the next time you’re ready to complain about the school climate, stop and think before you speak; consider how difficult it is to make the school a suitable temperature for everyone, and then you can whine.