Switching to AC in schools

[Anonymous]

I will be up front and honest: I am a teacher in an MCPS school. I have always had an issue with the transition from heat to AC. Not so much the other way in the fall in the because we can add layers if we are cold. However, not being able to turn on the AC until late April is crazy. Newer schools have safety windows that do not open enough for a breeze to get in. Even teaching with the lights off and fan on does not cut it. Students are hot and have difficulty concentrating. I know, in part, this is money saving because it will get a little cooler again, but it is crazy we go through this every year. I am sure your kids would agree!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will be up front and honest: I am a teacher in an MCPS school. I have always had an issue with the transition from heat to AC. Not so much the other way in the fall in the because we can add layers if we are cold. However, not being able to turn on the AC until late April is crazy. Newer schools have safety windows that do not open enough for a breeze to get in. Even teaching with the lights off and fan on does not cut it. Students are hot and have difficulty concentrating. I know, in part, this is money saving because it will get a little cooler again, but it is crazy we go through this every year. I am sure your kids would agree!

The county is damned if they do and damned if they don't. The air conditioning is controlled from Rocvkille and not from the individual schools. If they activated the a/c for one 85 degree day in early April and then it went back into the 50's the school system would be flooded with complaints that it was too cold to teach.

[Anonymous]

There should be something that can be done. In my kids' middle school, it sounds just too hot to focus, today they had to obtain ice to share among the kids for one of their classes. This is an issue that affects lots of different buildings, and I don't believe anyone else waits until late April to switch to A/C. I work at a large university and after a couple of days, they were able to make the switch.

[Anonymous]

The heat/air conditioning is controlled from Rockville? How?

[Anonymous]

The letter we received from our principal is that the AC has to be turned on at each school individually and that there is a schedule for the schools. Our school's AC is now on.

[Anonymous]

A quick explanation from MCPS:

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/index.aspx?page=showrelease&id=3325

Converting Schools from Heat to Air Conditioning
April 11, 2013

Q. Why isn’t the Air Conditioning on in our schools? Can’t you just flip it on like we do at home?

A. School mechanical systems are very different from residential systems. Our schools use boilers and chillers—known as “central plant equipment”—that heat or cool water, which is then pumped to the equipment that adjusts the air in each room of our buildings. Only one set of pipes connects the central plant to the room equipment. When the chiller is operating, the boiler must be physically disconnected by valves from the pipe loop. When the boiler is operating, the chiller must be isolated from the pipe loop. Prior to switching the valves, the water in the pipes must first be allowed time to come back to room temperature, which can take several hours. The chiller will not start with hot water in the pipe loop and the boiler cannot be started with chilled water in the loop.

The complete changeover process can require up to two days in each school, during which time the building has neither heating nor cooling available. Also, after the changeover has occurred, the school will not have heat available. Districtwide, it takes approximately three weeks to convert all schools. Maintenance crews will perform the changeover as quickly and with as little inconvenience as possible.

The changeover process began this week (April 8-12) and should be completed by the end of the month. If we had started the process earlier, it is possible that some schools would not have had heat last week when the temperatures were in the 20s and 30s.

We recognize that some of our schools were very warm on April 10, when we had record high temperatures in the Washington D.C. area. However, temperatures are expected to moderate in the coming days and our schools should be more comfortable.


Bottom line...it's not a simple task like flipping some sort of switch. It takes trained technicians to make the conversion, and MCPS has about 200 buildings to convert. I think they start with high schools, then do the MS, leaving the ES for last. That makes sense as HS have the most people in them.

[Anonymous]

This thread is hilarious:
"difficulty focusing"
"too hot to focus"
"difficulty concentrating"

You do know that there was a time in our recent past when there wasn't any air conditioning in schools, right? And somehow kids managed to learn.

[Anonymous]

When there wasn't any air conditioning in schools, schools were built with windows that could be -- and were -- opened for ventilation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
You do know that there was a time in our recent past when there wasn't any air conditioning in schools, right? And somehow kids managed to learn.

And you know there was a time in our recent past when personal computers didn't exist, right? Let's all do our jobs (including schoolwork) without them!

Sheesh!

[Anonymous]

It doesn't sound healthy to have windows that don't open.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It doesn't sound healthy to have windows that don't open.

Windows in new and renovated schools CAN open. Just not very far...maybe a few inches (the windows push out).