As you go from class to class in Skyline, you may notice that the temperature varies — sometimes drastically.
“It’s so annoying because I’ll wear a sweatshirt to school to prepare for the cold temperatures, and then I walk into a classroom and I’m literally boiling in my own sweat!” says Violet Jenkins (‘28).
You may experience the opposite, depending on where in Skyline you are.
In Physics teacher Lakesha Barton’s room, “Usually, as the day goes on, it gets colder. I have my own space heater I use. [People] say ‘your classroom is warm,’ … ‘your classroom is cold,’ or ‘my … last hour was really warm and now it’s really cold.’ People notice as they travel throughout the day.”
Students may wonder why teachers don’t simply adjust the slide thermostats that are in each classroom, but it’s a little more complicated than that.
“We have a heating season setpoint of 70 [degrees] and a cooling season setpoint of 74 [degrees] as a baseline for the classroom temperature setpoints at Skyline,” says Director of Physical Plant Chris Bullinger. “Beyond the baseline setpoint, the teachers are allowed up to a two degrees adjustment.”
This, combined with the three-degree deadband (a range where the room is neither heated nor cooled) and the communal air system, limits teachers’ control over the temperature.
The communal air system is unique to Skyline. Most buildings have rooms with two vents — one return vent and one supply vent. Not Skyline. The engineer tried to make everything unique and state of the art, and this system has another benefit: if one classroom has a good or bad smell (such as popcorn) it is distributed throughout the school.
“This school has a communal or shared return space,” says Kull, “So there’s a big duct system that all of our heat pumps are in, and nothing goes back from each heat pump right to the room. It goes to a communal space, and it’s sucking air from all the classrooms, mixing it and then returning it to the classroom.”
This causes the air in specific classes to either warm up or cool down depending on the temperatures of the classes around it.
Another reason for the heat discrepancies is Skyline’s geothermal heating system. Geothermal energy is better for the environment as it uses heat from the Earth’s core and is renewable. But, it can only reach roughly 100° as opposed to the 180-212° that other systems (like natural gas) can reach. So, when the building pulls in outside air it may be harder to heat the cold air.
An additional factor is that the heating is turned down at night to conserve energy. This means that in the morning, some classrooms may take longer to warm up, depending on the classrooms’ location and size. The furniture (such as desks and chairs) may also retain the cold.
Of course, there is always the possibility of mechanical issues that can contribute to the fluctuating temperatures. Steven Kull, Skyline’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) technician, asks that teachers take a look at their thermostats. It can be easy to turn it down on a warm day and forget about it.
“I would recommend … [putting] in a complaint, and I can look into their specific space,” says Hull. “I can make adjustments, if necessary, to keep them warm, because we don’t want anybody to suffer.”
“Our building is also glass,” says the current Finance Manager, Maya Fields Jacobs, who used to be in charge of work orders and the facilities. “So you will notice rooms that have more windows or are on the side of the building where it’s all glass might be cooler in the winter and hotter in the summer.”
Luckily, the current construction going on at Skyline may help reduce some of the temperature disparities.
“Some of the construction will be redoing a lot of the HVAC system,” says Fields Jacobs. “We are going to be getting a new geothermal system, and that should help with some of the temperature differentials that we see.”
