Staying Warm In The Residence Halls This Winter
HOT WATER HEAT
Many halls are heated by hot water circulating throughout their building. The actual heating units are either large radiators or baseboard heaters. Congreve, Mills, SERC A and SERC B have fan coil units.
Alexander, Jessie Doe, Congreve, Lord, Devine, McLaughlin, Englehardt, Mills, Fairchild, Minis, Gibbs, Randall, Hetzel, Sawyer, Hitchcock, Scott, Hunter, and Smith
The above halls have thermostatic valves on all radiators with the exception of Congreve, Mills, Smith and both SERCs (which have wall-mounted thermostats). These valves are attached to the hot water line where the pipe enters the heater. These valves have an adjustable knob functioning like a thermostat. Turning the knob clockwise decreases the heat. Turning the knob counterclockwise will increase the heat. It may take a little experimentation to find the desired room temperature setting.
ELECTRIC HEAT
The Babcock, Stoke, Christensen, Williamson and Hubbard Halls are heated with electric heat.
These halls have thermostats that residents can adjust to regulate room temperature. Electricity is purchased from Public Service Company of New Hampshire (PSNH). Because electricity prices are expensive, a bill for all halls on campus could run up to $160,000 per month and $1.1 million for academic year. The cost of electricity, campus wide, is about $5 million per year.
Our electric bill from PSNH includes a “demand charge” in addition to charges for the actual electricity we use. The demand charge is determined by our maximum use of electricity for any given half-hour period. The demand charge from PSNH is usually determined by our maximum use of electricity between 7:00 AM and 8:00 PM Monday through Friday. To keep the demand down, the university runs electric heat on cycles of thirty minutes. This is why the heater in your room may seem cooler than at other times. As it gets colder outdoors, the electric heat runs a greater number of minutes during each half hour cycle. If all the electric heat came on at the same time, our demand charge would be very high. For additional UNH energy information go to www.energy.unh.edu
Heating Pointers In The Residence Halls
If your room has a thermostat control, find the desired setting and leave it there.
Do not block heater with furniture or other belongings. Note any type of cord (i.e., telephone, computer etc.) melts when leaning against or even next to a heater. Keep everything at least 6 inches away from heater. Clearance is needed in order for room convection to operate properly.
Do not place any heat producing devices (computers, printers, refrigerators, microwaves, etc) near the thermostat. Doing so will cause the thermostat to read the room temperature incorrectly.
Make sure windows are closed at all times even when going away for a weekend. The windows need to be latched tight in order to compress the weather stripping and keep you warm, and to keep cold air out so pipes won't freeze. Please note that if a radiator freezes because a window was left open, you are held responsible for the cost of the damages. The radiator valve must always be open to prevent pipes from freezing. Never, ever turn your radiator completely off.
In the electrically heated halls, do not turn the
thermostat down when leaving for any vacation or long period of time.
The temperature settings are lowered automatically by a Computer
Demand Control System. If the thermostat gets turned down, the
control system will not be able to warm your room when you return from
holidays for the first few days.