Students at Sacramento State should not expect the temperature of their classroom to change with just the push of a thermostat button. The campus has a new state-of-the-art heating and cooling system, utilizing innovative techniques to save energy and help maintain energy sustainability.

The system, located in the Central Plant, the hub of facilities management operations, works with a Tridium Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning and a direct digital control system that controls approximately 90 percent of the buildings on campus.

The plant is given a master schedule of classes in the beginning of the school year so technicians can plan when to run cooling or heating in the classrooms accordingly.

Manager of Engineering Services Tim Bair said when class schedules change or when professors request room changes in the middle of the semester, that is when classroom temperatures are affected.

“There is a global time clock which has a set time for heating or cooling to begin which turns on early in the morning. On Fridays the campus-wide classroom scheduling system is shut off to save energy,” said Bair.

Bair went on to explain that temperature for an ideal learning environment differs from person to person, so pleasing every student and professor on campus is difficult.

“We need to know what room and what building it is,” said Bair. “If someone calls and say that all Mendocino Hall is too cold, I can look at the computer and say it’s not. We need to know the specifics. When we know the specifics, it makes a huge difference.”

However, there are red phones placed in classrooms and hallways allowing for those who are not comfortable to be connected to Central Plant to make service calls at extension 6242.

Building codes require a certain amount of fresh air to be used in the system. This fresh air is obtained by a fan-like structure which pulls outdoor air into the buildings through vents. The air is then distributed into rooms.

Other factors, like rooms being occupied by students who arrive for class early or club organizations using classrooms for meetings, also affect the room temperature. When students arrive early or use rooms unscheduled, there is no temperature control set for those times. With few people occupying a room, it may seem colder than when a room has more students during a scheduled class.

“We get a lot of things where people are supposed to be in a certain class, but it’s not scheduled. So if we get one or two times we get a message and we will correct it,” said Lead Building Engineer Eric Asamoah.

The boiler plants make all the steam that is distributed through campus which is then made into water. During the months of mid-October to mid-May the boilers are on 24 hours a day.

“The Union does get steam from the University’s Central Plant, as do many of the campus buildings” Bill Olmsted, Director of Facilities and Administration in the Union said. “Although there are several factors which can slightly affect the cost of this utility, the average annual amount is around $18,000.”

For more information on central plant call the Facilities Services Building at 278-6242 or visit their website at csus.edu/aba/facilities.