Investigating Young

  • by Karen K Dang

Lily was a Green Buildings Intern at the Energy Conservation Office.
She investigated Young Hall after we received unprecedented amount of cold and chilly feedback. After analyzing the data and conducting site visits, Lily was able to recommend appropriate vent adjustments.

lily
Thanks to Lily's work, Young Hall has gone from consistently cold back to normal. 

 

Analyzing TherMOOstat Data

In analyzing comfort votes from TherMOOstat, Lily found that in 22 comments people mentioned the air. Typically air comments come when people report their comfort as cold or chilly and most comments deal with the air conditioner being on in full blast or air blowing on them.

“It’s like a wind tunnel in here. Several people pack jackets to wear.”
young graph
young stats

 

Conducting Site Visits

Four site visits to Room 194 were conducted during varying times of the day. During every site visit, regardless of time of day, it was consistently colder in the front of the room and warmer in the back.

Lily took airflow measurements from different seats in the room to determine how the air was moving through the room.

She found that "in the center of the first five rows the air blowing on you was much more consistent." However, "near the edges of the rows or in the back rows [she] couldn’t feel air blowing."

 

mapped uneven airflow in a Young Hall lecture room
"I found that if you’re sitting in the back of the room you may feel totally comfortable, but sitting underneath the two air vents could get very cold." 
- Lily
lecture hall in Young hall

 

Adjusting the Vents

With the data Lily collected on her site visits, our team took action to adjust the vents in the room. Below is Tom, one of our Project Engineers, changing the angle of the vents.

adjusting vents

Now the vents in Young 194 point upwards and do a better job circulating the air in the room, rather than hitting the students in their seats before mixing with the warmer air in the room. 

vents

 

 

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olson hall

How Do Occupancy Sensors Detect Airflow?

A complaint about high temperatures in Olson Hall prompted our team to do some investigating. We discovered an issue with the occupancy sensor, which was impacting the comfort level in the classroom. 

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