Running hot and cold at City Hall
Linda Kelland and Prashant Bhalja head up facilities operations and energy control projects in Toronto municipal buildings, respectively. Here’s what they say about thermostat battles.

TheStar.com
Aug. 12, 2015
Christopher Reynolds

Linda Kelland and Prashant Bhalja head up facilities operations and energy control projects in Toronto municipal buildings, respectively. Here’s what they had to say about this summer’s thermostat battle of the sexes.

How do you regulate temperature control in buildings across Toronto?

PRASHANT: We use a building automation system. It’s all based out of the central control room (in the basement of city hall). Basically it readjusts the outdoor air intake according to outside sensors that measure air temperature and humidity on all the buildings.

And we have sensors in the ductwork that actually detect what’s coming from the inside space. These sensors, they’re wired, they correspond and relay the information back to the computer dashboard.

The system also automates the CO2 level, so there’s enough ventilation in the space so people are not falling asleep at their desks.

We can adjust this on a floor-by-floor level. Often we can narrow it down to much smaller sections of the building, like at Metro Hall. Not on an office-to-office basis, though.

What’s one of the toughest parts about maintaining comfort control?

LINDA: Our biggest challenge is council chambers. It has a very high ceiling and many controls and sensors. We have councillors, the mayor, senior staff — including the city manager and all the deputy city managers — the city clerk and all of the clerk’s staff that sit on the floor with the councillors. That’s a lot of CO2.

In council, we have people at the height of stress — the budget, TTC issues, what have you — and we have the full range of demographics. We have big men, and we have small women. Small women that might wear lighter clothes than the bigger men with ties and suits and the whole bit.

We try to optimize the temperature between the people who have a lower metabolism and the people that have higher or wear more clothes. We have to satisfy everybody, including the public. Some come wearing winter coats.

How evenly distributed are temperature complaints between men and women?

LINDA: I wouldn’t say it’s one more than the other. But typically it’s women who find it colder. Men usually call to say it’s too hot.

What are some of the most difficult complaints to accommodate?

LINDA: The most challenging is when I get a 338 call (internal complaint line), and they’re asking me for a space heater. It’s like, ‘Nohhh! I don’t want to give you a space heater.’ Even in mid-winter, I don’t want to give you a space heater because then we’re using energy that we don’t need to use.

Do people request space heaters in the summer?

LINDA: Yes
Do any of them get one?

LINDA: Mmm, no.

PRASHANT: Whenever we get that request, we first talk to that person and see what we can do to improve that.

LINDA: I don’t buy space heaters.

Who requests them, and how do you accommodate them?

LINDA: Office workers. Usually it’s women. The energy impact of a space heater on a floor that’s using air conditioning, we don’t want that.

We might suggest moving to another part of the room or closing a nearby vent as one solution before getting to outright temperature change.

Is there a possible gender bias to how temperature is set in municipal buildings?

LINDA: Maybe in the past. But you’re looking at a team here now that isn’t just men in suits. We have women who do most of our internal customer service calls. There are a lot of women in our office buildings, and they’re not shy. I wouldn’t say that, for the City of Toronto, we cater to men in suits.

PRASHANT: It doesn’t matter who the occupants are on the floor. We try our best to satisfy everyone that we can. We strive for about 85 per cent. You don’t want to be satisfying two people while another 20 are starting to scream.