Commentary

Where is all the heat going?

As you walk through campus tomorrow, or any other day, look around and admire the delicately frozen icicles hanging from the roofs. You’re looking at one of the main sources of energy loss on Andover’s Campus. During the winter season, massive amounts of energy are expended on heating, and a large portion of that heat is lost through the roof of a building. Thus, the more heat lost through the roof, the more snow melts from the roof, and the more icicles form. Therefore, the quality of insulation in any building on campus is directly proportional to the number of icicles hanging from the roof. However, the greater issue now is how this loss of heat affects our Green Cup standings. We as a school have trouble cutting our energy expenditure because of this loss. Take two dorms: Fuess and Isham. Last week, when Fuess clocked in at nearly 16 kilowatts per day, they had dozens of icicles hanging from their rooftops. Even though their expenditure was so high, the dorm was still cold. Compare these 16 to Isham’s mere 6 watts. Mr. Montanez, Associate Director of Maintenance and Utilities confirmed that when Isham was renovated last year, the insulation in the building was redone. Also, while Fuess is larger with nearly 40 students compared to Isham’s 20, the kilowatts used per person in Fuess is still significantly greater. Other dorms on campus have large amounts of heat loss, too. A prime example is Bishop Hall, where many of the windows don’t close or stay closed and let in cold air. This hinders energy saving in the same way as roof insulation because the poor heat containment requires more energy to make up for heat unnecessarily lost. Bishop is one of many dorms in the Quads that Mr. Montanez claims are most likely lacking proper insulation. As a school, we have saved 2.4 % of our energy. While this is significant, especially in such a large school, imagine how much we could save if the school spent money on insulation. By keeping more heat in, Andover would save much more energy in the long run inadvertently. It would benefit the students greatly as well. Isn’t that what the Green Cup Challenge is really about? We need to make saving energy a way of living. I truly believe that decreasing Andover’s heat usage will eliminate icicles from our roofs. And I hate icicles.