Jimmy Eckhardt went to bed Sunday night wearing his winter coat, pants and snow hat.
Eckhardt, a freshman studying video production, lives in James Hall, a West Green residence hall built in 1963. The building was without heat from about 4 p.m. Sunday until 1:30 a.m. Monday, a night that had temperatures ranging in the mid to high 20s, because of a hole in one of the building’s heat exchanger’s tubes.
“I was afraid I was going to get sick,” said Regina Donizetti, a freshman studying journalism who lives in James Hall. “It was definitely hard to focus on homework because it was freezing. It was distracting.”
James is heated by hot water. The heat exchanger takes the steam and heats up the water loop that runs through the building, heating walls and radiators, said Mike Gebeke, executive director of Facilities Management.
Sitting in a steel “can,” the heat exchanger is made up of about thirty copper tubes. The heated water is then distributed throughout the building via heating pumps that were replaced in James earlier this year, Gebeke said.
Failing heat exchangers are common in OU buildings, especially residential ones, because not all have water softeners to ease the burden on the pipes, Gebeke said.
“We have hard water in Athens,” he said. “That constant wear is what causes the pipes to wear down.”
In a process that took almost six hours, the system’s water was drained, the hole in its pipe was plugged, and the water was replaced. The pipe will no longer be used. Instead, the exchanger will rely on its other tubes to exchange the water.
The water temperature, typically steamed at 240 degrees and sent throughout the building at 180 degrees, takes awhile to cool down because of the brick and other materials that compose James. However, before the water was drained, it reached the temperature Athens’ city water is kept — 50 degrees.
“Of course, our room was greatly affected by the outage,” said Ryan Gabos, a freshman studying video production. “I myself have fairly poor circulation, and my knuckles would turn purple from time to time (Sunday), which happens to me when the temperature is really low.”
James’ heat exchanger is between 20 and 30 years old, although most last only 10 or 15 years, Gebeke said.
The maintenance crew spent Monday ensuring the pipes were without air, a consequence of ripping out the system and refilling it with water, Gebeke said.
Facilities Management will continue to inspect James Hall’s exchanger each week, making sure that it is in working condition. A new heat exchanger would cost between $5,000 and $7,000 and would come out of Residential Housing’s maintenance budget.
Some James Hall residents struggled to keep their rooms warm Sunday night.
Housing staff responded to the complaints by suggesting residents tape a piece of plastic sheeting, available at the staff desk, over the window to keep out the cold, according to an email sent to James Hall residents Sunday from Micah McCarey, James Hall’s residential coordinator.
“(The plastic sheeting) doesn’t replace the fact that our room was getting no heat to replace the cold air from the window,” Eckhardt said.
sj950610@ohiou.edu
