Fresno City College faced high temperatures inside buildings and classrooms over the past few weeks, which is now fixed. But why did it take so long for the problem to be fixed?
The college campus maintenance team controls the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning, (HVAC), for both the main campus and West Fresno Campus. The HVAC system follows the weather patterns of the calendar year. It switches from heating to cooling in late March and early April, according to Daniel Moore, the vice president of Administrative Services.
“They [maintenance team] monitor weekly what the expected temperature is supposed to be, and to their credit this year, they did know that it was notably warmer sooner, and they’ve taken action as a result,” Moore said.
When the season starts to change, the weather can vary significantly and stay inconsistent throughout the week or day.
And with the weather switching earlier this year, the time the maintenance team changes the AC isn’t the same.
“Its a significant labor of effort for our district office maintenance team, to calibrate the chillers and the boilers,” Moore said.
Commercial systems differ from regular air conditioners that are found in homes, one cannot toggle back and forth between heating and cooling, so the team must do it at the right time to minimize people’s complaints, according to Moore.
The energy costs are high in California, so when dealing with such large HVAC systems they can take up a large portion of money. Typically there is a multi-week period where HVAC isn’t needed while the weather is changing, which helps manage energy costs, according to Moore.
“It’s a little more comprehensive, but also from making best use of resources and being efficient,” Moore said. “This is that time of the year where these points are in the day, and for a few days where the weather is perfect we don’t need heat or air. So my understanding is the district office does the best we can to take advantage of that to mitigate the use of electricity for overall utility saving.”
Leading up to the switch, building maintenance received a lot of complaints about the high temperatures, but the flip of the switch is mainly based on data driven factors, according to Moore.
Since the maintenance team has turned on the air, complaints have minimized, according to Jerry Hernandez, the buildings and grounds custodial manager.
“Maybe a handful, but not anything out of the ordinary,” Hernandez said. “Everybody’s temperature tolerance is different too, and I think that comes into play as well.”
Moore said FCC is planning to get inventory in their own heaters and possibly coolers, because things like this will happen throughout the year.
“That’s a little augmentation we’re providing as a campus to be sensitive to the needs of our students, staff, and everybody in between,” Moore said.
If any issues arise and if there are HVAC requests, one can submit a ticket through TDX client or reach out to building services, who are the intermediary, according to Moore.
