Over the Hedge by T Lewis and Michael Fry for July 31, 2014

I once took classes in a newly built music building where the heaters covered a wide range of temperature around the set temperature, first heating, then allowing it to cool, and so on. Worse, they had a tendency to start whining loudly at certain settings and/or temperatures. For both of these reasons, the temperature controls were constantly being reset. In my solfege class, our teacher complained to one of the workmen about having to change the temperature all the time, and he decided the problem could be fixed by putting in a box over the temperature control to prevent people from fiddling with it. Shortly after this, our teacher cancelled a class when three of the heaters started whining at different and non-harmonious pitches, and nothing could be done.

Mysteriously, they ended up naming the building after the contractor (at the University of Ottawa), apparently for his financial contribution to the project. The same contractor had previously been responsible for building some new residences at the university that reportedly had a wide range of problems.

I haven’t been back since graduating, but I wonder if they ever did anything about those heaters.