Q: I find the hallways to be hot, even on warm days. This concerns me, not only due to my comfort, but also from an economic stand point. The service stairways are often blasting hot. Why is this and how can it be fixed?

Thank you for asking this timely question. The groundhog still has us paying close attention to the temperature. The Community Center hallways temperature is maintained through all the adjoining offices and rooms. We are able to maintain a comfortable and uniform temperature in the Community Center and main hallway because the doors to the rooms remain open for the majority of the time and a thermostat is located in the Game Room.

For floors two through five of the West Tower, the thermostat is located on the fifth floor. Due to the construction of the building maintaining temperatures in those hallways during the winter is fairly easy, even with the shared thermostat. Cooling is a little more of a challenge in those halls and they can get warm during the heat of the summer. The East Tower has several units that maintain the temperature on each floor. Each stairwell is supplied with wall heaters which have a large differential on the control of the thermostat and they require a lot of adjustment.  Since heat rises, the stairwells can be fairly warm on the upper floors and, due to traffic, colder on the lower floors.

The Maintenance Team just adjusted all the stairwell heaters. Our standard thermostat setting is 75 degrees. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers recommend 75 degrees as the default setting. Per their recommendation optimal temperatures for winter are between 70 and 75 degrees and the optimal temps for summer are between 72 and 78 degrees.  If you have a concern about the temperature in any location on campus, please contact Maintenance as we continually strive to keep everyone comfortable. 

Thank you for another great question, and please keep them coming. I hope we will soon be discussing the beautiful spring flowers!