Success Stories > Broken Equipment
The Goldilocks of Airflow
Too much air and it can feel cold. Too little air and it can feel hot and stuffy. Fluctuations between too much air and too little air speak to a whole different issue! Your TherMOOstat feedback helps us find "just right".
While there aren't clear patterns that too much airflow is always a problem at the air handler, letting us know about airflow abnormalities will help us find malfunctioning mechanical equipment faster.
Too Much Air, Too Little Air, Is There a Balance?
Airflow is tricky because we must consider how much air is entering a room and how fast it's blowing in. Oftentimes we see TherMOOstat users noticing airflow more than a room's temperature.
Another complexity is all rooms are connected by the air flowing into space. Have you ever opened the door to a room because it was too hot or too cold? While opening the door is one way to manage the temperature, it often affects the surrounding rooms. The stories below are from users that have let us know about airflow issues they noticed, and the mechanical issues we were able to fix.
"Great googly moogly - I can only take so many clothes off and my office is a boiler. What am I supposed to do...just askin'. Even my colleagues say my office is super hot and they are cold running folks. The last person in here said it was the hottest place he had ever been and was glad to leave!!!"
This comment from an enthusiastic TherMOOstat user prompted our team to take a look into the thermostat settings for this office in the Human Resources Building. We discovered a row of offices in the Human Resources building had poor temperature control. Through a site visit, we found the vent in one of the offices was closed, causing the air to flow into the next-door office. The vents in the offices were causing an imbalance in airflow. Some rooms were oversupplied with air while others had restricted flow.
The open vent allows the cold air to cool the room.
Because this vent is closed, this room stays hot.
We manually adjusted the vents and communicated with the occupants to fix the issue. At the end of our site visit, we left data loggers in the room to confirm a change in temperatures.
"I think opening the vents in my office helped. I had always been told to keep them closed but it made the problem worse."
Your Vote Matters!
As you can see, this comfort issue can affect a lot of people in different ways. Your TherMOOstat feedback helps us get to the heart of these issues. If you notice any airflow issues in your building, leave your vote to let us know!