I’m Still Cold
NAEye finds the answer to NAI’s top question and how the solution is not as easy as it seems.
Students and teachers attempt to make their classrooms comfortable for all students and staff members
It’s the question everyone in NAI has been asking each other. Students and staff are constantly complaining about a specific issue that affects everyone and it has been an issue for quite some time. The heating and cooling in the school is fairly uneven. In some situations, students move from rooms that feel too hot to rooms that feel too cold. NAEye talked to the head custodian, Mr. Mike Heiry, on why students are repeatedly saying “I’m still cold”.
Heiry came to NAI in March of 2019 and he says this has been an issue ever since then. The issue with the heating and cooling has been an on-again and off-again type of problem. He also gave NAEye a rundown of how the system works and where the problems occur.
Many teachers have called to complain about the uncomfortable temperatures in their rooms. However, district officials have set guidelines that say the temperatures in each room should be between 72 degrees and 73 degrees. Yet, many do not know the answer to why these rooms can be so unbearable.
Roughly 3 years ago, North Allegheny Intermediate High School went under a major renovation to not only make the halls look nicer and more up to date, but to also fix what was going on in between the walls what most people do not see.
There are vents inside the walls and ceiling of NAI called univents. Inside the univents, there are two radiators used for the cooling and heating. To heat the school, NAI has a broiler system and it allows hot water to move throughout the radiators in the school.
To cool down the school, there is chiller tower outside that chills water inside the tower. The water is then sent to the pipes and radiators and is made into cool air from the fan inside the pipes.
Then, a fan is used to turn any water into air that exits through the vents in each room. Students and teachers also complain about irritating and distracting noises coming from the vents which are actually made from the fan that are inside the vents. By law, the fans are not to be turned off at anytime and is not able to stop them if he gets any complaints about the obnoxious noise. “There is nothing I can do about them. By law, I have to keep them running,” Heiry said
Heiry explained how a type of antifreeze called glycol is put in the heating and cooling system. There are two types of glycol: ethylene glycol and propylene glycol. If humans or animals come in contact with ethylene glycol, they will be poisoned. NAI uses the propylene glycol because of the lack of toxicness in propylene glycol.
When there is a leak in the old pipes, the glycol falls onto the ceiling tiles which creates a colored stained in the ceiling. Heiry has a large red stain on the ceiling of his office because of a leak.
When the renovation took place, the old univents were replaced with new and improved univnets. However, the pipes connected to those univents were never replaced. Those old pipes are the main cause of NAI’s heating and cooling issue. They have not been cleaned or drained of old waste and they are also causing leaks throughout the school.
Take NAI’s principal, Mrs. Ewing’s office for example. Her heating and cooling unit is unable to work properly. “Her unit is actually connected to the units of the rooms in the front of the building where the spanish rooms are and in that area” said Heiry.
In order to fix her system, each system from each room that are connected to her system would have to be shut down for a certain amount of time. According to Heiry, all the pipes would need to be drained of 2,000 gallons of glycol out of the systems, affecting each room within the same system. Therefore, Mrs. Ewing has a space heater in place of a heating system and often displays the “fake fire place” from YouTube on her additional monitors keep her “warm”.
Heiry showed NAEye the layout of the school with each room’s temperature. If a teacher contacts him and asks him if he can cool down or warm up their room, a major change in temperature is most likely not possible. If there is a difference of more than one degree or higher between the temperature with the rooms on the same system, the system will no longer work as it is supposed to.
He also gave NAEye an exclusive look in the broiler room where the action happens that students have not seen before.
But students still are feeling uncomfortable air throughout their school. Since the issue mostly will not be fixed soon, you will hear students repeatedly saying “I’m still cold.”
Anthony Durzo is a sophomore at North Allegheny Intermediate High School and this second year as a staff writer for NAI's student online newspaper, NAEye....