Heating Issues Causing Discomfort in the Classroom

Over the past few years, Hanover High School has faced problems with the heating system as some classrooms have been too cold while others have been too hot. Many teachers and students have complained about the issue. Sophomore Emily Jones stated that recently many of her classes have been very uncomfortable temperature-wise: “[I am] either shivering or sweating and it’s kind of ridiculous.” She also said that the heat or lack thereof makes it harder to focus in class due to the discomfort caused by the room temperature.  

To understand why the temperature in rooms fluctuates so much, one needs to understand how the heating system works. The school runs on a hot water based heating system where hot water travels through pipes all over the school, and every classroom has its own unit. Valves in the unit easily get stuck being open or closed. When they get stuck open a classroom often gets too hot because heat is constantly entering the room. On the other hand, when they get stuck closed, a classroom can get too cold because no heat is entering the room. Matthew Zweeres, the head of grounds at HHS said that this happens every year at the beginning of winter as the values get used to the cold but that this year has been “Chaotic.” Every year the school ends up replacing 20 to 25 valves but this year they had to buy 40 new valves, half of which have already been used.

Mr. Prince, a social studies teacher, has been experiencing severe problems in his classroom. Instead of just the valves breaking, the regulator in the heater broke. As a result of this, the heater either had to be turned off or had to be manually controlled. Sometimes, the classroom was too hot and others too cold just like in other classes but once in Mr. Prince’s class, they had to change locations because it was too hot to be productive in his classroom. Mr. Prince referred to this problem as “inconvenient” but overall the problem doesn’t seem to be taking a big toll on the focus or productivity of classes, but rather as both Jones and Mr. Prince stated, it is just “uncomfortable and “inconvenient.”