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[quote=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.[/quote]

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