If an air conditioning system is about to be fitted in the childcare centre you run, you might be interested in this advice.

Make sure the control panel is out of the children's reach

It's important that the HVAC contractor installs the system's control panel somewhere that the children cannot reach. When young children see any gadget with buttons, a screen and small flashing lights (such as a HVAC system's control panel), they tend to think it's a toy and, as a result of this, want to play with it.

If the children at your facility can reach the control panel, there is a good chance that they will change its settings or even switch it off on a regular basis, simply by pressing lots of random buttons, just for the fun of it. This might result in your staff having to check the control panel's settings at regular intervals, just to make sure that they haven't been changed. It might also lead to the temperatures in the childcare centre fluctuating a lot throughout the day.

When deciding where to put it so that the children cannot access it, you should not simply pick a reasonably high position on a wall (such as next to a light switch), as some of the particularly determined children may drag their chairs or large toys over to this location and then use these to reach the panel. If you're worried that this might happen, you might want to put the panel in your staff's break room or in a lockable walk-in cupboard in the facility.

Tell the children's parents about the installation of the air conditioner

It's also sensible to speak to the parents who send their children to your facility about the air conditioning system. If, up until now, the temperatures in your childcare centre have been fairly high even when it's hot outside, then the parents who use your services may have become used to dressing their children in light, summery clothes to keep them cool. However, after the HVAC contractor installs air conditioning on your premises, the temperature in the building will be much lower during the warmer periods of weather.

By letting the parents know that there's now an air conditioning system in your childcare centre, they can start dressing their children in slightly thicker, heavier garments that will stop them from getting too cold whilst they're at the facility.