Job Discussion Forums

[hlamb]

How many of your schools have air conditioners?

My school does but soon I'm going to be looking for a new job and I'm curious what proportion of schools do. If you don't have aircon, do you have fans? How do you manage to avoid sweating disgusting amounts during class?

[ls650]

Remember that not everywhere in Mexico is hot enough to merit extensive air-conditioning.

In our school the classrooms only have ceiling fans. And yep, here on the coast it can get pretty warm in the classrooms; in April-May the classrooms can hit 35c or more - plus 85% humidity. You just cope with it.

[Ben Round de Bloc]

At the school where I teach, most rooms have AC but a few don't. Finding a classroom where the AC is functioning correctly is another matter. May through September here it's not unusual to have temps in the 35�-40� range. On occasion I've taught in classrooms at 4:00 DST in the evening in July with no AC, 45� outside, and the temperature was cooler outdoors than inside the classroom.

Our regular EFL classes still run on a traditional "tropical" schedule: 7:00-12:00 and 4:00-9:00 with only a few special courses sometimes taught between 12:00 and 3:00. Except for the hot days when the temp goes above 40�, I prefer ceiling fans and no AC. Anything below 40� doesn't seem overly hot to me after so many years here. The ACs are noisy. The thermostats don't work on most of them, so they have to be turned on and off at 10-minute intervals, or else the classrooms become like freezers. They don't cool the rooms evenly. Some parts of the rooms get really cold, while other parts stay uncomfortably warm. During the hot season here, which is 8 or 9 months of the year, it seems the AC repair guys spend as much time at school as part-time teachers do.

Part of it is probably psychological. I simply don't like AC. I don't have AC in my house, and I don't use it in my car. One of the reasons I moved here is that I can deal with hot humid weather much better than cold Iowa winters. I didn't move to the tropics with the idea of shutting myself inside places that were air-conditioned.

[ls650]

[MELEE]

[hlamb]

Thanks for the the perspectives, everyone.

Just let me clarify something. When I use the air conditioner I use it only to cool off the room slightly. My boss always turns on the air con before classes and he sets the temp at 18 degrees. As soon as I get into my classroom I start shivering and reset it to about 26 degrees. At that level it's just enough to be slightly cooler than outside. Personally, I hate sitting in a freezer-like room because it IS hard on the body. I notice, however, that my students like it much colder than I do. Most of them have air con in their homes and cars so they're used to it.

[delacosta]

Interesting and timely topic. The group of profs who formed to decide what to ask this year from PIFI (not sure exactly what the letters mean, just that its a program to improve education in the country and that they dole out money) just put in a request for air conditioners for all classrooms on campus. They determined that it was the top priority to improve student performance. I'd have to agree that the temperature at 4 o'clock on can have a huge effect on one's class. At that time no one is happy to be on campus, profs nor students-and the hotter it is the greater the resentment for being in class. By the time 5 30 ish roles around it's cooled down a bit and the mood on campus has noticeably improved.
We have an airconditioned lab in the English dept and it doubles as a classroom. Last year I had my 4 oclock there and it was a much more pleasant enviornment to teach in as well as more conducive to learning.

Of course. I think the ideal solution would be to teach form 7-3!

[ls650]

I hear ya, delacosta. On the one hand I think AC is a huge consumer of electrical power - but on the other hand I notice a huge difference between the energy levels of my 9 o'clock students and my 12 o'clock students!

[cwc]

We teach from 7-3 and have huge A/C units in every classroom.

[delacosta]

IS650 I agree. I don't think air conditioning is the answer. I think air conditioning has much too much of a negative enviornmental impact. I wouldn't consider it for my house because of tihs, even though my wife would put it in in a sec.
Proper planning and building design should be taken into consideration when building in the tropics. Seeing as planning a prioiri isn't the norm around here I think the obvious solution to this problem that is only going to get worse is to try to take the heat into consideration and to work around it as best we can. Starting with a better schedule, for one.
But from what I understand pigs will be soaring with the seagulls before that happens!

[hlamb]

What I really hate to see (and feel) are the stores with their doors wide open and cold air pouring out into the streets. To me that's a real waste. If one does use air conditioning, it should be in a sealed room so the cooled air lasts as long as possible. That's actually one of my objections to always using air conditioning-I like fresh air too much! I use it only as relief on the hottest days at work and even then it's only a bit. I gave up sleeping with it on once I saw my first electricity bill. It brought home to me how much energy the thing was using. It was made worse byt the fact that there are holes all around the windows and doors in my room so the expensive cooled air didn't last long.

Ast o building design, I agree. Ever been in one of those larger houses with a central courtyard and all the rooms open to it? They have good air flow and the rooms where the sun doens't hit directly are quite comfortable.