After revising its original plan, Menlo will install air conditioning in the rest of the CADC next summer. The school also tentatively plans on installing air conditioning in all Upper School classrooms over the summer of 2026. The art studio, gallery and second-floor CADC classrooms currently do not have air conditioning.
Menlo previously installed air conditioning in four second-story Upper School classrooms over winter break in 2023, serving as a trial to see if the new technology was suitable. Director of Maintenance Lauren Arms found that the technology — an air source heat pump — was unreliable and is devising an alternative plan. “Our pilot showed that what we tried was not a good solution,” he said. “We tried it because it was by far the least expensive. We’re probably talking about a couple million dollars less than other solutions.” The heat pumps cost about $25,000 to install per classroom, a third of the price of other leading technologies.
Arms must work with consultants to revise the design, submit a proposal to the town and receive permits before he will confirm an installation date. He hopes to obtain permits by the end of spring 2026 and install air conditioning that summer. “All I can tell you is we are going to implement air conditioning,” Arms said. “We don’t yet know how, and because we don’t know how, we obviously don’t know when.”
Arms has encountered multiple issues with the heat pumps in the Upper School classrooms. The heat pumps are louder than expected, and students near the unit have reported having trouble hearing. Because the heat pumps are positioned on one side of the classroom, they do not cool the room evenly. “We just don’t like the way they are working out. So, we are going to pursue something different [and] are starting that now,” Arms said. “We were persistent, we really hoped and tried to make these work.”
Menlo even had to replace three of the heat pumps with new units. “Because of all these problems, the manufacturer actually pulled the first ones out and put new ones in,” Arms said. “They would just stop working, they just weren’t reliable.”
While math teacher Reeve Garrett is grateful for the air conditioning in his classroom, he agrees with Arms about the heat pump’s lack of even cooling. “I wish we had a little bit more robust system here. It doesn’t cool evenly, it really affects everyone in this corner, and so the person sitting at this desk is wearing a sweater, and then most other people in the room feel warmer than they’d like,” he said. “[But] I really think it’s better than nothing.”
Garrett also notes that the system struggles to cool the room down on a hot day. He said that the thermostat may be set to 77 but unable to cool the room down to even 84 degrees when it is hot.
On the other hand, computer science teacher Zach Blickensderfer has not encountered any difficulties with the new air conditioning unit in his classroom. “I think it’s spectacular, and I’m very lucky to have one,” he said. “This classroom used to be unbearably hot on hot days.” Blickensderfer does not find the noise to be disruptive and believes students can adjust to the uneven cooling.
Arms has also had issues connecting the heat pumps to the thermostat, which would allow him to turn each unit off and on using an app. “You can only adjust it in the room. You lose some control,” he said. “So if the teacher leaves it on all night, or leaves it on over the weekend, it’s just going to run. We don’t really like that.” For the middle school units, Arms does not have to physically go to each unit to adjust them and can push one button using an app to turn all the units off.
Arms may try to install a split-system air conditioning system instead with a condensing unit outside and a furnace, mimicking house air conditioning systems. The middle school, Whitaker Lab, Stent Hall, Spieker Center, college counseling office and parts of the CADC and gym use these air conditioning condenser units to cool the buildings.
The CADC was designed and built in 2012 to be an environmentally friendly building, and it even has been certified as a sustainable building. However, with the installation of air conditioning, Arms notes that the building will fall short of those high energy efficiency standards. “It was a building that was intended to open the windows, turn on those big, huge fans in the middle, roll up the garage doors and just let it breathe and enjoy the cool air that we get every morning,” he said. “So it was intended to be super environmental. It didn’t work.”
Even though Menlo produces more electricity with solar panels than a decade ago, Arms notes that the additional air conditioning units require a great deal of electricity. “They were definitely trying to build that building to a super high energy efficiency standard, which air conditioning doesn’t really work for, because it draws a lot of power,” he said. “It was probably an ambitious idea, not a realistic idea.”
