UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State will conduct a Steam Emergency Event Test between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, March 9. During this time, all noncritical spaces, including offices, classrooms, conference rooms and other public spaces, will be set to unoccupied, and heating set points will be reduced from 70 degrees to 50 degrees for one hour.
As during the holiday break, all spaces labeled critical, such as research areas, lab spaces, animal spaces and telecom rooms, will not be affected by the test. Following the conclusion of the test, buildings will return to normal conditions. While all buildings will be released by 8:30 a.m., faculty, staff and students should note not all spaces will have reached 70 degrees by that time.
This test is designed to demonstrate how much load the University can shed by reverting buildings to an unoccupied cycle. At the end of the test, feedback can be forwarded to your facilities coordinator to share with OPP to assist with future process improvements.