This weeks case

RayWohlfarth

Im not going to say the name of the case but will give you the setup. I was a 4th year apprentice and sent to the "Office from Hell" They were the most miserable people I ever encountered. They had a pneumatic thermostat in the space and the people would fight over the control of it. One would set it for 60 and another would set it for 80. The owner tried thermostat covers and the employees pried the covers off. They would place bags of ice on the thermostat and heat lamps. One of the techs did something I thought was ingenious. What did he do?
No hints till Friday at 6am EST when the video is released.
Thanks
Ray

GGross

Physically moved a new thermostat to a location that the employees could not see, but left the old one on the wall in the same location so the employees thought they were adjusting the thermostat.

mattmia2

put a t-stat in each office/cube/desk that wasn't connected. I thought this was Dan's story.

GGross

mattmia2 said:

put a t-stat in each office/cube/desk that wasn't connected. I thought this was Dan's story.

This one is more ingenious because you can sell more thermostats 😂

ratio

Tied a piece of yarn on the air device?

Steve_Wheels

Thermistor under the cover of the existing Tstat and a connected thermostat in the boiler room?

EBEBRATT-Ed

Some type of "dummy thermostat" as @GGross and @mattmia2 mentioned.

I once had a DPW garage where the guys would come in with their trucks at the end of the day open the garage doors turn the stat up high, shoot the bull and drink coffee and shut the garage doors and go home. When the boss came in in the morning the shop was 90 degrees and a low oil tank.

We disconnected the stat and wired the fan to run 24/7 and put a stat in the return air.

RayWohlfarth

@GGross and @EBEBRATT-Ed you nailed it. The tech was tired of replacing the cover and thermostat and suggested a thermostat on the return air. The funny part of story was the note inside the thermostat cover. The tech who relocated the thermostat included a note which read, "This stat is a dummy one. the real control is in the return air. If you tell the employees this secret, you will be cursed for all eternity."
It still makes me smile. Anyway here is the link to the video,The case of the counterfeit thermostat
https://youtube.com/watch?v=WWcY2VZ6E_8

The second video is an excerpt of an article I wrote for Engineers Systems magazine called Designing a steam system for a brewery. It discusses how a steam system for brewery differs than one for space heating.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=7BfXcOTNgGw

GGross

The note is hilarious

RayWohlfarth

I thought the same @GGross

EBEBRATT-Ed

Love the note.