Dear Students, Faculty and Staff,
As we head into Fall and cooler temperatures, our Campus Operations & Maintenance staff is preparing to switch our building systems from cooling to heating.
Throughout Stony Brook University’s 200+ buildings, we have a variety of heating and cooling systems. While some of these systems are flexible, others are not in that they are unable to supply both air conditioning and heating at the same time, and must be manually switched over each Fall and Spring.
Heating Season
For West campus, we switch from cooling to heating once the outside air temperature is consistently below 60°F. This switch typically takes place anytime between late October or early November depending on outside air temperature.
For East campus, because of hospital requirements, cooling is available until mid-December, while heating is available throughout the year whenever outside air temperatures drop below 55°F.
For South campus, R&D Park, and Southampton, all of the buildings have individual heating systems, so no switchover is needed.
Building Temperature Set-Points
During a building’s normal operating hours, we target our temperatures to fall between 68°F and 72°F for the heating season and between 72°F and 76°F for the cooling season, in accordance with national building standards.
Normal operating hours for buildings (and even parts of buildings) vary throughout our campus, so we work directly with each Building Manager to verify and validate operational hours.
Although we try to maintain every space within these temperature ranges, occupants may experience temperatures a few degrees on either side of these set-point ranges depending on their location in the building and the time of year.
Contact Information
If you find your respective areas fall below 65°F (or above 78°F):
- Resident students, please contact the Community Area Office or RA for your building
- Faculty, Staff and Commuter Students please contact the Building Manager or call:
- West Campus, South Campus and the R&D Park: (631) 632-6400
- East Campus Hospital: (631) 444-2400
- Southampton Campus Academic: (631) 632-5058 / 5047
- Southampton Campus Residence: (631) 599-8985
As always, Facilities & Services personnel will work to address any temperature concerns you have throughout the year.
