Thermostats to Give Students Control, Slash Steam-Heat Use by 25 Per Cent

Residents of steam-heated dorms will be able to use newly installed thermostats this winter to control the temperature of their rooms as part of a broader University plan to conserve energy.

Letters instructing students on how to use the controls, which were added to radiators last summer, will go out in a few weeks, Michael N. Lichten, assistant energy coordinator of the Faculty, said yesterday.

Upperclassmen living in Adams, Claverly, Kirkland, Winthrop and parts of Leverett, North and South Houses, as well as freshmen living in Greenough, Hurlbut, Lionel, Massachusetts, and Mower Halls, will benefit from the new measure. Mather House has had thermostats in its rooms since it was built in 1969.

The new feature will cut steam heat usage in each of the 50 dorms and buildings it has been placed by an estimated 25 per cent this year. It is part of a five-year plan to significantly reduce University energy bills.

Five-Year Plan

The project--the result of a 1980 energy audit--also includes installing storm windows, insulating pipes and windows, and increasing reliance on steam heat. These improvements should be completed this fall Lichten said, adding "we have a five-year goal of cutting energy use in half in faculty buildings."

More than $1,000,000 has already been spent and almost $2,500,000 will eventually go towards the energy conservation project. Officials predicted the thermostats, like the other measures, would pay for themselves within five years.

Too Hot to Handle

The thermostats were installed because the audit noted that students often felt that the centralized heating made their rooms too hot and forced them to open their windows in mid-winter. Thayer Hall residents used the controls as part of a preliminary experiment last year, and officials found that energy usage fell 25 per cent from the previous year.

The University focused its attention on steam-heated buildings, because they are more difficult to control than water-heated structures. Parts of some water-heated dorms--Grays, Hollis, Stoughton, and Weld--will get thermostats.

Though students will have some control over their room temperature, they will be unable to heat their rooms more than 70 degrees.