I think you have to explain to them that (1) you cannot leave the doors open by the fire code or they are breaking the law, (2) you cannot use fans near hoods as they disturb the proper hood operation per NFPA 45, (3) It is difficult to get people to wear proper PPE when it gets too hot and (4) some instrumentation and many tests will not work properly.

I doubt it will get hot enough to create a significant fire hazard as you need to exceed the flash point of the flammable materials used in the lab and have enough of them opened to the atmosphere to create a credible issue. I sense your frustration but this is a problem you need to approach by explaining the difficulties, the sum of which may be enough you have to tell them that at some temperature you are shutting down the lab. You are not going to find a c ode or law with a fixed number to cite however.

Richard Palluzi
PE, CSP

Pilot plant and laboratory consulting, safety, design,reviews, and training
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Richard P Palluzi LLC
72 Summit Drive
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-----Original Message-----
From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety On Behalf Of Rakers, Rosemary S.
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2021 1:50 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] heating/cooling issues

Thanks for all the responses. For me, it isn't the instrumentation, it is the fact that it was 80 degrees outside and, while the heat was turned off, the air was not turned on. The suggestion was to open the windows (we don't have any windows that open) or to use a fan to help cool (not a good idea in a lab with students, especially during COVID). They also suggested leaving the doors open to the hallways to help circulate air. As you all know, this is also not allowed per fire code. So, what am I left with? How can I convince the powers that be that we need to have the air switched on? I completely understand their position, it is hard to switch back and forth, we don't have a system that allows us to flip a switch and go from heat to cool. This is not the fault of those in facilities nor is it the fault of those working in the building, this was a problem in the design of the building. We all get that. But somehow we must function. I was legitimately concerned about the te!
mperatures in the building and the possibility of a fire. The temperature in my flammable room went from 86 degrees to 88 degrees in 15 minutes.

At what temperature do I worry? And, does anyone have a written plan for what to do if the building temperatures are not controlled?

Thank you.
Rose

Rose Rakers
Benedictine University

-----Original Message-----
From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety On Behalf Of Stuart, Ralph
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2021 5:50 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] heating/cooling issues

> >In general labs have 6-12 air changes per hour. At that exhaust rate you need a lot of people and equipment to really affect the ambient room temperature. In 46 years I have only seen a few labs with so much heat producing equipment that it seriously affected the HVAC loads versus the enormous amount due to the hood exhaust.

Mostly outside of chemistry labs, I have seen many labs whose ventilation systems are not hood-driven and so are in 6 ach range. In some cases, these rooms are used as ‰??freezer farms‰??, where all the walls are covered with freezers and refrigerators working very hard to maintain the temperature settings requested of them. In addition to having high temperatures, these rooms tend to be quite noisy and unpleasant. And those conditions can impact the use of neighboring rooms.

As you noted, this problem is often anticipated by facilities staff as they see the cooling devices stack up, but the allocation and management of sample storage space is not often driven by facility considerations in the academic setting. This situation doesn‰??t seem likely to be the case in the original question of this thread, but I have seen it in real life often enough to bring it up in this context.

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
Environmental Safety Manager
Keene State College
603 358-2859

ralph.stuart**At_Symbol_Here**keene.edu

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