Residents in Edwards Hall and University Park got the cold shoulder during the past week due to water heater outages. The hot water in Edwards Hall was out Thursday evening through Friday morning, and UP dealt with the same problem Monday morning.

Don McLeod, Physical Resources central plant manager, said wind may have blown out the water heating system and caused the initial problem Thursday.

“Sometimes weather can act up,” McLeod said.

A Physical Resources technician began working on the problem in Edwards after the first complaints came in around 7 p.m. Thursday. Around 8 a.m. Friday, hot water was still not available to residents, so the heater was adjusted and reset, McLeod said.

This is the first time this year Edwards has had any problems with water heating, said Luke Cochran, assistant director for Edwards Hall.

Cochran said the hall director put a work order in soon after receiving several complaints from residents.

“They probably fixed it as soon as they could; it was just a delayed response,” Cochran said.

Brad Schultz, sophomore political science major from Nashville, Tenn., waited for the hot water to kick in Friday morning but had to settle for washing his hair under the tub faucet.

“Ice water is warmer than that was,” Schultz said.

In the past, McLeod said, several residence halls have had various water heater issues, but it is difficult to find any repeating cause. Problems with any of the parts of the system are likely to affect the whole.

“It has faults like any piece of equipment,” McLeod said. “As long as we get the call, we can get to it quick.”

Tenell Zahodnik, UP resident director, said phone calls about the hot water outage at the apartments started around 8 a.m. Monday. Four building were affected. As of Monday afternoon, Zahodnik said the problem had not been identified, but plumbers were working on correcting thermostat problems.

The heating issues were in no way connected to each other nor to the construction on the Gibson Health and P.E. Center, McLeod said.