Especially during the summer, but really on any warm evening I don’t think our Midnight Makers would appreciate that.
For all intents and purposes, the space is a 24 x 7 operation. In a year, the only time I have ever been to the space and found it empty was early Sunday mornings and the odd holiday.
Well, unless the garage door is open, hopefully the insides cool air doesn’t leak straight out. Maybe we could find a way to program a smart thermostat to shut off the AC if the garage/bay door is open? That or we could go all the way and get solar panels to cut energy costs…Not sure how the cost/benefit analysis would look on that.
It’s a good thought, but as Walter points out, there are a surprising number of folks there all night or most of it - I frequently leave at 05:00 to avoid rush hour traffic going back home to Arlington on weekdays. I’m amazed at the amount of auto work that goes on after midnight or people out in the shop.
When I left “early” last night at 01:30 there were about a dozen folks just in the Common Room. In the really early hours the outside temp is down so I don;t think the A/C is running that much.
You really don’t save money by not running the equipment (scheduled off that is). That heat has to be removed regardless to have a comfort level. The equipment then has to run longer & harder to catch up. If there is an issue with the equipment it may not catch up at all. It’s like driving down the freeway, you don’t jam on the gas & go 120 to get to where you want. I don’t anyways.
TBH, I find the space on the cold side much of the time. I remember last summer on a hot night, late, I went and sat outside in 95+ heat, because I was so cold. I plan on keeping a light wrap in my storage box this summer. Right now, I just wear a long sleeve out most of the time.
Any idea which of our tools are big power hogs? I know that kilns tend to be.
I think that we can take the vents and fan as well as engineering with us. Only the roof and wall penetrations need to stay. But, I agree that we should stay in our current location as long as possible.
We rent the space and would have to clear such an improvement with the landlord … who would most likely end up owning said “permanent improvement”. Without a solid net metering law on the books, the ROI on panels is very long in TX - typically well past the first inverter replacement at ~10 years.
One problem is that, for whatever reason, the temperature tends to vary considerably from one room to another. There seems to be some kind of circulation problem. This can also result in some of the rooms becoming very “close” or “stuffy”.
CA is one of the cold spots, to me.
One note on the motion sensitive lights. They have those in the pottery lab at Ceder Valley and they would go off with folks sitting at the wheel or working at a table. You need to move around or wave your arms some.
I have noticed this too. When some rooms are uncomfortably hot, others are nearly freezing cold. Maybe someone could do a flow study and strategically, partially block a few outlets to get the airflow where it needs to be… although this can depend on the sun load too : /
The electronics room tends to be one of the outliers for whatever reason.
Huh. Today I learned. That’s sad to hear.
My dad has this problem in his office!
To contribute to the offtopic, info on AC:
https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/Operations#HVAC
Can always create a ticket so infrastructure committee can change thermostats, actual data and testing is always useful.
Anyone looking to help could start with making sure all the ceiling tiles are in place. (Logistics will reimburse you if you pick some up from home depot)
Important to note that AC serving breakroom, woodshop, metal shop has been consistently off due to repeat freezing of filters.
The hot cold spots is an air balance issue. The diffusers would need to be all checked with a flow hood & then balanced to a design or rule of thumb. That’s if our duct work has balancing dampers, that’s one item that typically will get VE out (value engineered). The previous tenants may have had different loads distributed or they may not have had an air balance at all.
The common room seems to be a hot spot, and it is on the west side also so that may be effecting it
Who is flagging all posts on this thread?
I’d assume it’s because the thread isn’t about AC and it was totally off topic
Edited to reflect original post.
I think it takes 3 flags.
Mods can see whomall did whatall. See Alex’s post on this thread.
You can unhide your flagged post by editing, and hidden posts can be revealed by clicking the link to view it anyway.
Are posts about keeping on topic off topic?
Continuing the second off-topic discussions, This thread should just be split by a moderator. the discussion split from the Original Post to AC and lighting efficiency. I think we have highlighted an issue in our system. We tell members when they see a topic go off-topic they are to flag the posts as off-topic so as to indicate to a moderator that the topic needs to be split. That is what happened here, but it has been about a day since this happened and yet the thread isn’t split. Also, the reception from those flagged is that they did something wrong or someone is messing with them. Neither is true, instead they were involved in a discussion that went off topic, our mods should take the hint and please just split the topic.
(please flag this as off-topic for me so the mods will know it is part of the second off-topic thread, thanks)
The Purple Classroom, in particular, is on the same system as the Common Room, but without its own thermostat. It swings wildly from a little too warm to much too cold.