Have you ever wondered how the temperature is controlled in our school buildings? With over 14 million square feet of space to heat and cool throughout Anne Arundel County, the process is not as simple as adjusting the thermostat. Instead, our schools depend on a dedicated team of 14 technicians to maintain the complex system of Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) Units and make sure our schools are ready for students to learn.
What does it take to heat and cool a school?
On a Monday morning, HVAC Technician Wayne Swanke checks in at the front office at Northeast High School. Wayne received a maintenance request about one of the school’s Energy Recovery Units (ERU), part of Northeast’s extensive HVAC System used to control the temperature of the school. Ron Spriggs, Northeast’s Chief Custodian, meets Wayne in the front office and explains the problem with one of the unit’s motors and the diagnostic steps he has tried to correct the issue on his own.
Down in the auditorium, Wayne climbs up to the raised platform behind the stage where the large piece of equipment sits. Squeezing between the unit and the guardrail, he opens the access door about one foot,—all that is allowed before the door hits the guardrail—reaches into the unit and begins to work.
“There’s a lot of facets that are involved with these units,” says Wayne. This is not an exaggeration. In Northeast High School alone, there are 21 Energy Recovery Units, three boilers, three chillers, one cooling tower, one or two fan coil units in every one of the 80+ classroom, 10 blower coils, and cabinet heaters at every door. Each piece of equipment has filters, motors, and belts that need to be cleaned and maintained. “All of these [pieces] play a big part into what could be a problem in one area of the unit,” says Wayne. “It takes a little while to run through everything you do to diagnose what’s wrong with the unit.”
Maintaining the Equipment
As an HVAC technician, Wayne is responsible for knowing the ins-and-outs of all of these machines. The schools’ custodians are on the front lines of maintaining the equipment, but if something goes wrong, the HVAC technician is called in to service the part. With only 14 technicians serving 126 schools, this is a big job, not to mention a physically intensive one. Many of the units have small access panels and are often located in places designed to be out of the way from students and staff. Wayne shares, “We do work in crawl spaces, we’re up on ladders a lot, we’re inside of ceilings, on roofs. No matter the temperature outside, we have to control the temperature inside.”
The job is also a technical one. HVAC systems are becoming more energy efficient and are offering schools more flexibility in controlling the temperature, but they are also becoming more complex. Keeping up with the ever-changing technology requires a lot of training and hands-on practice—a part of the job that Wayne loves. “It’s an ever-changing process to how these units are made,” he says. “I like to have the knowledge that I have now but I also like to continue my knowledge on to the next level.”
Controlling the Temperature in Our Buildings
Anyone who has been inside of a school knows that the temperature can feel bit temperamental, no pun intended. Staff and students may get frustrated with the lack of options in setting the temperature. However, given the size and complexity of the HVAC units in a building, controlling the air flow requires more than setting a thermostat. Unlike the units used to control the temperature in our homes, most of the HVAC equipment in the school cannot switch back and forth between heat and air conditioning. This means that when schools adjust their units to provide heat in the Fall, they will continue pumping heat until the Spring, when the systems are changed back to cool the air.
The AACPS Office of Energy Management is responsible for determining when this change should be made and considers the forecasted temperature to set a baseline temperature in our buildings. Once the county decides to switch from heat to air conditioning or vice versa, an individual teacher may be able to adjust the temperature up and down by a few degrees, but cannot change the air from hot to cold. In addition, with hundreds of people in each building, that “perfect” temperature is going to be different for each person.
Maintaining the Temperature for Learning
HVAC technicians recognize the limitations of the equipment in our schools, but despite the demands of the job, they are committed to giving our students and staff the best learning environment possible. “We’re here. We’re going to be here,” Wayne assures us. “In order to be comfortable you need to have someone maintain that comfort for you… We temper the air the best we can to make sure everyone’s comfortable when they come to their job or their place of knowledge.”
