With the arrival of spring and warmer temperatures, you may begin to wonder when the air will kick on in your building. Or, why you can’t have both heat and air as options at the same time. Drake has a two-pipe heating and cooling system. In basic terms, this means the system can be in either heating mode or cooling mode, but not both at the same time.

The changeover from heating to cooling or vice versa is made manually, and takes about a week to implement. The planned date to switch campus buildings from heating to cooling mode is April 15.

With that said, there is always the possibility that unusual weather patterns might cause some discomfort. Facilities Planning and Management monitors the weather forecast closely and adjusts switch over dates according to forecasted temperatures, but due to our fluctuating Iowa weather, it is often a guessing game.

Facilities Planning and Management switches the residence halls from heating to cooling first since they are occupied 24/7. It is also important to note that once the system has been switched over, there is no changing it back due to the manual process required to make the change.

Every building is a little different, too, so if anyone has any specific questions with their particular building or space, please contact Brett Lovelady, Drake HVAC manager, at 515–271–4728 or brett.lovelady@drake.edu.

— Brett Lovelady, Heating and Cooling, Facilities Planning and Management