Thermostat Setting Principles

I recommend that our Market Street at Town Center Condominium Association set our common element thermostats in accordance with the following principles.


Don’t set in “Cool” mode if air temperature around the “outside” part of the air conditioning system could drop below 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

Thermostats should normally be either in the “Heat” mode or the “Cool” mode, not in the “Off” mode.

Specified settings should be different for different common elements (corridors vs. Community Room vs. Fitness Center, etc.).

Setting in “Cool” mode must be at least two degrees higher than the setting in the “Heat” mode. Larger differences between “Cool” and “Heat” temperature settings reduce energy costs, but may be less comfortable.

Since Unit Owners pay the Association energy costs, the temperature settings should reflect the balance between cost saving and comfort that our Unit Owners prefer. Reflecting Unit Owner preferences, our Board should specify the temperature settings for both modes (“Heat” and “Cool”) for the thermostats in the various common element areas. Our Board should be open to future fine-tuning of the specified temperature settings if necessary to better reflect Unit Owner consensus.

No one should be authorized to change common element thermostat settings except to bring the settings into compliance with Board specifications, or to change the mode and associated temperature setting as the outdoor temperature changes with the seasons.

To better understand why I propose the foregoing principles, please see the posts at these two links:

http://mstc-uoa.blogspot.com/2008/11/corridor-temperatures.html

http://marketstreet.proboards83.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=generalcommquestionsandcomment&thread=84&page=1

If you don’t understand or disagree with any of the principles I proposed above, I urge you to comment or ask your questions in an email to me at rasmusssen305@gmail.com or/and in a post on my forum at http://mstcuoa.proboards59.com/