Minimum Temperatures for Common Elements

[It is now 25 January 09, and some of the common element thermostat settings have been changed--for the better, in my opinion. The Community Room setting is now "Heat" if the temperature drops below 71 degrees Fahrenheit. The two Terrace-level thermostats are now set to "Heat" if the temperature there drops below 70. And the Fitness Center thermostat is now set to "Heat" if the temperature there drops below 64.]

Should the minimum acceptable temperature be different for different Common Elements? How about, for example, a minimum acceptable temperature of 72 degrees Fahrenheit for the Community Room, 61 for the Fitness Center, and 66 for our mile of corridors?

The minimum acceptable temperature would be the temperature the applicable thermostat(s) would be set at in the “Heat” mode during the cold winter months. If the heating system is working properly, heating will turn on if the temperature falls below that setting and the actual temperature will rise to the set temperature, at which time the heating will stop. This cycle will continue as necessary to keep the actual temperature up to the minimum acceptable temperature (the temperature to which the thermostat is set). The lower the minimum acceptable temperature, the less we Market Street at Town Center Condominium Unit Owners will have to pay toward our Association heating costs.

Perhaps something less than 72 would be okay for the Community Room, but I mention 72 because the thermostat there is currently set to 72 in the “Heat” mode. A temperature of 72 may be fine for people sitting still watching TV, but I think 72 is too warm for people playing the games in the Community Room.

Perhaps 61 is too low to be the lowest acceptable Fitness Center temperature, but I mention that temperature because management has often let the Fitness Center temperature fall to the low 60s and sometimes to as low as 61, suggesting to me that 61 is the current de facto minimum acceptable temperature for the Fitness Center. Because Fitness Center users are engaging in strenuous exercise, I think the minimum acceptable temperature for the Fitness Center should be significantly lower than the minimum acceptable temperature for the Community Room.

While I agree with heating our corridors to a warmer minimum temperature than the Fitness Center, I don’t see the logic of heating our corridors to the same minimum temperature to which we heat the Community Room. Residents may spend 15 minutes or an hour or more in the Community Room, perhaps dressed in “indoor” clothing and watching the large TV. On the other hand, residents usually pass through our corridors briefly, often dressed for the colder winter weather outdoors. Thus, a temperature something like 66 ought to be okay as the lowest acceptable temperature for corridors. The actual temperature in most of our corridors is staying in the 70s even though the controlling thermostats are currently set to the “Off” mode (meaning that those corridors aren’t being heated by the heating system).

The exception is the relatively short and low-down Terrace-level (UL) corridor on the west and south sides of our building. The two thermostats in that Terrace-level corridor are currently set in the “Heat” mode to 72 degrees Fahrenheit, resulting in the actual temperature in the Terrace-level corridor staying at about 72. Why would our Association spend money to keep the Terrace-level corridor as warm as we keep the Community Room?

I believe it is time for our Board of Directors to specify reasonable and logical minimum acceptable temperatures for our Community Room, our corridors, and our Fitness Center. Those lowest minimum acceptable temperatures the Board specifies should reflect a Unit Owner consensus (if there is a discernable unit owner consensus on this issue).

Before warm weather returns, necessitating spending Association funds for cooling, our Board should also specify maximum acceptable temperatures. But those maximum temperature specifications can wait a while. Now the Board should specify the lowest acceptable minimum temperatures for our Community Room, corridors, and Fitness Center.

For more information related to temperatures in our common elements, see the posts at these three links:

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

http://mstc-uoa.blogspot.com/2008/12/same-thermostat-settings-for-all.html

http://mstc-uoa.blogspot.com/2008/12/thermostat-setting-principles.html

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