University officials have located one cause of the lethargy-inducing levels of carbon dioxide present in Schneider Hall.

Director of Facilities Planning and Management Terry Classen said the outside air dampers – devices that regulate the flow of fresh air into the building – were part of the problem.

Classen said in the last couple weeks, his staff discovered that some of the dampers were stuck closed and too much of the air was recirculated.

Last semester, The Spectator reported students in Schneider Hall were feeling drowsy in classes due partially to higher-than-desirable carbon dioxide levels.

Facilities Planning and Management released a report on Oct. 16 stating, “Testing has revealed carbon dioxide levels that exceed federal standards during class periods. Students become drowsy and inattentive in class.”

When students first learned of the high carbon dioxide content in the building, senior Jessica Young said a lot of her classmates talked about it. Now when students feel sleepy in class, she said they joke about shifting the blame away from a professor’s boring lecture to the drowsiness caused by carbon dioxide.

Young, a marketing major, attends classes exclusively in Schneider. She said the building is always warm in the summer and she feels tired in classes, but doesn’t fall asleep.

After the dampers were opened, Vice Chancellor Andy Soll said the system got decalibrated over time and the dampers closed once again.

Classen said he suspects linkages that connect the dampers to the rest of the Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning system have worn down since the system was built in 1967. His staff is investigating the exact cause of the problem.

When administrators applied for funds to overhaul Schneider’s HVAC system, they didn’t know the reason why the ratio of carbon dioxide to oxygen was high.

Classen said an engineering study showed rooms had too much carbon dioxide in them when compared to Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards.

Some rooms were only a couple of percentages off of the standards, but Classen said other rooms should have 5 to 10 percent more oxygen in their air than they did.

Though there is no standard for academic buildings, Soll said the OSHA standard was used to provide support for the request for an improved HVAC system. He said fixing the HVAC system could cost $400,000 to $1 million.

Classen and Soll said fixing Schneider’s HVAC system is at the top of the list of changes UW-Eau Claire wants to have done.

“The secret is to bring in more fresh air more to improve oxygen content,” Soll said.

The volume of complaints about Schneider Hall’s air temperature prompted the evaluation, Soll said, and his office hasn’t received as many complaints about other buildings recently.

“We know not all buildings control temp the way we like,” Soll said.

In fall, Soll said people complained about the temperature in Hibbard Hall, but fixes made during the fall should remedy the situation.

Construction on the Campus Mall brought chilled water from the central water chiller on top of McIntyre Library to Hibbard Hall. The project cost $175,000 of state funds to complete.

A water chiller is a device that cools water, sends it across coils in the air conditioning system and cools air sent through air conditioning ducts in the building.

Soll said Hibbard had its own water chiller, but it broke down in the summer of 2002. Since then, Hibbard’s chiller has been “limping along” and not working reliably at a comfortable level. Due to the nature of the buildings and their aging HVAC systems, Soll said the buildings’ climate cannot be completely controlled.

Junior Vang Kou Xiong has a macroeconomics class in Schneider and he said the building’s climate is OK. The one exception he noticed is in computer labs. When there are more computers in a room, he said they generate more heat and the air temperature in the room increases.

Classen supports Xiong’s observations because he said Schneider, originally built in the 1950s, could not anticipate the impact computers would have on the building’s climate, and the system needs to be updated.

“We still have problems with the total amount of air circulated in the building,” Classen said. “The whole HVAC system needs an overhaul.”