Edited by Neil Anderson, Tuesday, 10 July 2012, 23:02
I've just read this at WTF. [For non-nerds the trick is that it will run constantly making the CPU throw out heat, but as it runs as low priority so it doesn't slow things down when you are working.]
One of my more-fraught duties is to ensure the the building is at a comfortable temperature for the inmates to go about their business. People hate me.
I've been doing this for over twenty-five years now so I know that it isn't possible; no two people are comfortable at the same temperature. Or at the same temperature, if the weather outside looks different.
People will complain on grey windy days about being cold, these same people will complain the next day about being hot because it's sunny outside. The temperature inside the room will be exactly the same; I know that it's the same temperature because I have a whirling thermometer that I use to prove it. Well, I used to prove it to them, nowadays I know that this is a waste of my time: people are funny about heat, logic and reason will not sway them.
The crux is control—the feeling of having it. The ironic thing is that although everyone thinks that I control the heating system I don't. My job is to try and persuade people that they are in control, when they aren't.
Unless you have a brand-new school you're going to have a mix of legacy, out-dated, misconceived and state-of-the art.
My main boiler house [I have three] is the size of a two-storey cottage. There are three huge boilers, a DHW boiler [Domestic Hot Water], two extracts [extractor fan systems] and three calorifiers [hot water tanks that double as immersion heaters.]
There are three control panels: two eighties pieces-of-rubbish controlled from who-knows-where through a phone-modem, that I'm not sure works, and a modern computer-controlled panel where it appears that I have control.
There are twenty pumps, ranging from much bigger than the one you have at home, to the much-much-much bigger, and they're all paired.
There are seven heating zones all controlled by three-port-valves [actuators really] by something that nobody from the heating engineers, through the control guys to the high up engineers in the council don't know what. I'm assured that it all works off sensors, I know my school, I've never seen one of these fabled sensors.
My feeling is that it's all controlled by the temperature difference between the flow and return. It's pretty telling that none of the professionals have ever told me that I'm an idiot.
My fear is that this is all controlled by a clock that is essentially the same as the one you use to set your central heating.
This wouldn't be so bad, if I could turn it off and on. I can't, I have to make a phone call, which may, or may not do anything.
Then there's the problem that I have hospital radiators. Hospital radiators are big old beasts; once they're hot they are hot. You can't take heat out of the system once it is in. Also you can't put heat into system at any speed.
When I arrive at work I'm usually wrapped up really warm; peons like me don't require heat. When I arrive the heating hasn't cut in or is cutting out. I know to dress for the weather. Which makes me a bad judge of when said heating should go off/on. Never mind that I'm not sure if it is possible.
So I have no control over the heating.
Still, I, and the people who work with me aren't complete idiots; we installed dummy controls in every room. These controls don't do anything, they aren't connected to anything. I guess that complaints are ninety-nine per down.
All problems are problems with people. Tackle those first.
heating
I've just read this at WTF. [For non-nerds the trick is that it will run constantly making the CPU throw out heat, but as it runs as low priority so it doesn't slow things down when you are working.]
One of my more-fraught duties is to ensure the the building is at a comfortable temperature for the inmates to go about their business. People hate me.
I've been doing this for over twenty-five years now so I know that it isn't possible; no two people are comfortable at the same temperature. Or at the same temperature, if the weather outside looks different.
People will complain on grey windy days about being cold, these same people will complain the next day about being hot because it's sunny outside. The temperature inside the room will be exactly the same; I know that it's the same temperature because I have a whirling thermometer that I use to prove it. Well, I used to prove it to them, nowadays I know that this is a waste of my time: people are funny about heat, logic and reason will not sway them.
The crux is control—the feeling of having it. The ironic thing is that although everyone thinks that I control the heating system I don't. My job is to try and persuade people that they are in control, when they aren't.
Unless you have a brand-new school you're going to have a mix of legacy, out-dated, misconceived and state-of-the art.
My main boiler house [I have three] is the size of a two-storey cottage. There are three huge boilers, a DHW boiler [Domestic Hot Water], two extracts [extractor fan systems] and three calorifiers [hot water tanks that double as immersion heaters.]
There are three control panels: two eighties pieces-of-rubbish controlled from who-knows-where through a phone-modem, that I'm not sure works, and a modern computer-controlled panel where it appears that I have control.
There are twenty pumps, ranging from much bigger than the one you have at home, to the much-much-much bigger, and they're all paired.
There are seven heating zones all controlled by three-port-valves [actuators really] by something that nobody from the heating engineers, through the control guys to the high up engineers in the council don't know what. I'm assured that it all works off sensors, I know my school, I've never seen one of these fabled sensors.
My feeling is that it's all controlled by the temperature difference between the flow and return. It's pretty telling that none of the professionals have ever told me that I'm an idiot.
My fear is that this is all controlled by a clock that is essentially the same as the one you use to set your central heating.
This wouldn't be so bad, if I could turn it off and on. I can't, I have to make a phone call, which may, or may not do anything.
Then there's the problem that I have hospital radiators. Hospital radiators are big old beasts; once they're hot they are hot. You can't take heat out of the system once it is in. Also you can't put heat into system at any speed.
When I arrive at work I'm usually wrapped up really warm; peons like me don't require heat. When I arrive the heating hasn't cut in or is cutting out. I know to dress for the weather. Which makes me a bad judge of when said heating should go off/on. Never mind that I'm not sure if it is possible.
So I have no control over the heating.
Still, I, and the people who work with me aren't complete idiots; we installed dummy controls in every room. These controls don't do anything, they aren't connected to anything. I guess that complaints are ninety-nine per down.
All problems are problems with people. Tackle those first.