Lucia Marquez-Uppman ’25, Raka Mukherjee ’25, Willow Lehrich ’26, Amber Sarch ’28
Sustainabilititeam Guest Writers
When I sat down with Scripps Maintenance Manager David Turner to talk about HVAC sustainability, my jaw dropped multiple times. Not only have I been using my AC unit completely unsustainably, but I was telling everyone else incorrect information too.
For Earth day in elementary school, our teachers told us to turn the faucet off when we were brushing our teeth and turn the lights off when we weren’t in the room. In my head, energy conservation was the same as water conservation. With this logic, I assumed turning my AC unit off as I left my room was the correct way to conserve it, but unfortunately this train of thinking was entirely wrong.
Turner walked us through the two different types of HVAC systems in Scripps dorms. GJW, Wilbur, Clark, Frankel, and Routt use fan coil AC units. Each room or suite has two dials, one for fan speed and one for hot versus cold air.
The most sustainable way to use them? Fan on low and temperature on a comfortable level at all times. Since the building is circulating air 24/7 anyway, turning the units off and on uses more energy than keeping the unit on at all times and adjusting as needed. That is, it takes more energy to reheat or cool than to maintain the temperature.
You should only use the high fan speeds if you need to cool or heat your room quickly. In fact, Turner recommended only turning the unit off entirely if you won’t be in your room for more than two entire days.
The other type of HVAC system, the LG units in Toll, Dorsey, Browning, Schow, and Kimberly use similar methods with their variable refrigeration system. Keep the units on at all times, preferably between 68 and 78 degrees Fahrenheit, and adjust as needed. Each icon on the LG unit depicts a different setting: the snowflake means the unit is cooling, the sun means it’s heating, the water droplet is a dehumidifier, the AI face shouldn’t be used (it doesn’t work with our building’s system), and the fan icon adjusts the speed of the fan.
Turner was adamant about using the dehumidifier setting for showers as it prevents mold from growing in the building, especially in bathrooms. While the fan coil units don’t technically have dehumidifiers, their fans should still be on near hot showers.
Although never turning on the AC units or just opening the window to get air circulating would save energy, Turner also brought up a few points to take into consideration.
For one, the building is designed to get clean, filtered air circulated through every room and is already using that energy. Plus, with Los Angeles County’s less than perfect air quality, it may be healthier to keep those windows closed. If you do need some fresh air and decide to open the windows, make sure to keep your AC unit’s fan on low (or turn it off for a few days) so it isn’t pumping out air that is needlessly let outside and wasting energy.
In 2023, the building with the most gas usage was Frankel and Routt. That same year Scripps used 23 million kBtu of gas and 21 million kBtu of electricity.
Getting the right information on how to be sustainable is one thing, but putting the action forward is another. Though headlines about climate change are daunting, making individual and community-wide changes are nonetheless important steps toward a more sustainable world.
