Managing HVAC equipment in University residence halls and dorms

Josh Massey, HVAC Manager for the University of Dayton, manages the day-to-day HVAC operations and service requests for the Catholic research university in Ohio. “I'm the first one who sees it when a call for service comes in. I report my findings and then assign the technician that's going to go out and service the equipment.” Comprised of ten dormitories and four hundred homes, Josh’s territory involves answering a wide range of service calls and distributing a force of over a dozen technicians to handle those issues. Thankfully, Josh has a new tool to help him get insight into his systems.

“Before we started using Sensi Multiple Thermostat Manager, we were pretty much with a basic non-programmable thermostat. Some temperature lockouts here and there, but for the most part, the user had free range to the HVAC system.”

“We would find thermostats set all the way down to 50 degrees, just wreaking havoc on the HVAC equipment, shortening the life of it. Now, with the Sensi MTM, we have the ability to identify problems before we have major issues and even put lockouts in to prevent temperatures set below our allowable thresholds.”

In addition to efficiencies with system insights and performance, the cloud-based system has enabled Josh to manage service calls better. “Multiple Thermostat Manager helps us diagnose service calls before we send a technician out simply by viewing it online and seeing whether the system is way outside a set point or is it within a degree or two... knowing that we might have a performance issue rather than an actual equipment breakdown issue.

“The time savings have been huge. Our technicians can actually pull it up on their phones, iPad, laptop, whatever they work from, and view it after they make the repair to identify that the unit is still working without ever having to go back to that location.”