From wearing down parkas, layering tights, to using hand warmers, Hillsdale College students and staff fight the cold in many different ways.
Indoors, that is.
From office buildings to dormitories, many students — and some staff members — say that campus buildings are simply too cold.
“For the amount of money we pay to live in college housing, we should be able to control the temperature of the buildings we pay rent in,” junior Nick O’Donnell said about Simpson Residence.
Energy Education Specialist Tim Wells said the administration’s new efforts to conserve energy have not changed the heating in dorms and that many temperature changes in non-dorm buildings are the results of mechanical failures.
Energy Management Program saved $107,000
Wells began Hillsdale’s Energy Management Program this past June as part of the administration’s broader goal of conserving energy.
“Any funds saved go directly back to the academic realm — that is the sole and specific design of this program: to conserve where possible, be good stewards of these resources, so they can be redirected back to the college and the academic side of the college to benefit the student body,” Wells said. “This will help to further the mission of the college.”
From June to November of 2011, the Energy Management Program saved over $107,000 as compared to the same period in 2010 for electricity, natural gas, water, and water sewer charges campus-wide.
The savings are the result of the effort by the administration with the assistance of Students in Free Enterprise.
Sophomore Martha Ekdahl leads SIFE’s Energy Management Initiative. She said they aim to reduce energy without inconveniencing students.
“We are not trying to invade people’s space,” Ekdahl said.
Simple measures — like using power strips that students turn off when they leave their dormitory — can help save energy, Ekdahl said.
“When you multiply it by all the students, it really adds up,” she said.
Heating and cooling changes by building
Because most campus buildings were built at different times with different designs, heating and cooling is tailored to the specific needs of each one.
“Heat is controlled differently in all dorms — and no ceiling has been placed on what is required or necessary to maintain a desired temperature,” Wells said. “McIntyre and Simpson on forced air with air handlers, Benzing on room units, Suites on individual suite thermostats, and all the rest on radiation loops with valve control in [or] around the rooms.”
Students face cold in dorms
Senior Scott Scharl lives in the Suites and said living in the room at then end of the dorm with three outside walls can be frigid, especially when the wind blows into the room through the window pane and frame.
“Sometimes, at night, I sleep with two blankets, flannel socks, and two sweatshirts,” he said. “There’s a simple solution: allowing space heaters on the end suites. In Simpson, the corner rooms on the end have space heaters built into the end.”
Wells said that the Suites responds differently due to its design and requires close monitoring and individual thermostat control.
In Simpson and McIntyre, heat is based on return air, Wells said, meaning the temperature of supply air from the heater can climb as high as necessary. The return air is pulled from the duct work along the inside walls of the rooms. All have been set between 71 and 73 degrees.
Some Simpson residents have had a chilly experience, though.
“It was kinda chilly first semester. Now, the walruses have started migrating into Simpson. It has been consistently cold this semester,” said sophomore resident assistant Garrett Holt. “[Sleeping in the cold] is not hard if you stack up comforters.”
O’Donnell said that in his experience, forced air at 70 degrees cannot keep his Simpson dorm room warm.
“If the average temperature of the vent is between 70 and 72 degrees — I have a food grade thermometer that I measured it with for days on end and that’s what it is — and the average exterior temperature is 30 degrees with single pane windows—”
“Closer to zero pane windows than single pane,” sophomore Carl Vennerstrom interjected.
“— and kick panel walls that are made of a composite material that isn’t an inch thick,” O’Donnell said. “How could the interior of the room be even at 70 degrees?”
Setting heat at 70 degrees in Simpson, he said, ensures that it can never be near 70 degrees in a room because an entire quarter of the room is working against that heat. The wind blowing through the seams of the wall, he believes, makes the “food grade thermometer” in his room “often” read below 60 degrees. He theorizes that the return air provides an inaccurate read because the return air is pulled from the inside wall.
Mechanical errors often to blame
In both dorms and campus buildings, energy-saving initiatives often get blamed for equipment failures.
“Sometimes, mechanical failure which may cause temperature fluctuation can be wrongly attributed to an energy-savings endeavor. That is simply not the case,” Wells said. “We are not seeing savings from the dorms, as we shouldn’t since they aren’t under any system of controls or programming.”
Temperature changes in Moss and Delp halls are the result of a recent failure of one of the major system controls, Wells said. After a month of chilly temperatures, the administration has contracted to have the system replaced.
“That process is still ongoing. There are currently offices that are not up to the desired level,” Wells said. “We are continually working daily with the programming company [in Grand Rapids] in trying to expedite this process and get these systems running optimally.”
All main campus buildings — other than dormitories — are equipped with control systems that ensure the temperature does not rise above or below a certain level during the day. At night this level drops, but Wells would not say by how much.
However, some students think that the controls make classroom buildings too cold.
“I always wear a sweater in class. I sometimes wear a coat,” sophomore Kaleigh McCormick said. “It’s 54 degrees outside right now and I almost put a coat on in class.”
