The Morning After a Holiday Shutdown
Updated: Jan 24, 2020
Feeling cool or warm the morning after a Holiday Shutdown? During a holiday weekend, the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems are turned off* to save energy. As the rooms warm up after the holiday weekend, the temperature may feel a little different than usual. When you first come to your room in the morning, it may seem colder than usual because the system is waking up from its own holiday period. While the room is warming up, you may feel warm or hot air is coming from the vents because we're trying to heat rooms after the Holiday Shutdown. Thanks for your patience as we do our best to save energy and maintain comfort on campus.
Room Temperature Trends Before & During a Holiday Shutdown
Examine the graph below to see how HVAC systems are scheduled on an average weekday, and how this compares to the Holiday Shutdown. During business hours on a typical weekday, the HVAC system will heat a room to 68°F and cool a room to 76°F. On a typical weeknight, the indoor temperatures set back so the HVAC system isn't heating or cooling unoccupied buildings. Nighttime temperatures are similar between average weekdays and a Holiday Shutdown weekend. The difference between a normal day and a day in a Holiday Shutdown is that buildings aren't heated or cooled during a Holiday Shutdown. You can see in the graph below the difference in room temperature over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
* Holiday Shutdowns only affect administrative and classroom spaces and exclude laboratory and animal spaces.