While base officials at Misawa Air Base, Japan, hope to eventually bring air conditioning to military family housing and dormitory units, there are a few places Misawa residents can go to beat the heat this summer, such as the Mokuteki Community Center game room. Many common areas on base have air conditioning; the base theater and chapel will have it by next summer. (Jennifer H. Svan / S&S)
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan — For base residents here, late summer can mean fitful nights of sweaty, restless sleep or extra trips to the chilled food court to cool off.
Air conditioning is a luxury not found in family housing and the dormitories at Misawa.
But a change in a Defense Department regulation may bring a blast of cold air to summer living at this northern Japan base.
The new rule, modified about two years ago, loosened the criteria for facility eligibility for air conditioning, according to base officials.
The old standard required that a locale exceed a minimum number of hours with both high temperatures and humidity before air conditioning could be used, according to Vistasp Jijina, 35th Civil Engineer Squadron contracts element chief. The new regulation allows for air conditioning in housing if either a temperature or humidity limit is met.
"We met the humidity criteria," he said.
Normal summer temperatures at Misawa average in the 70s on the Fahrenheit scale, but in late July and August, temperatures can soar into the 80s and 90s and the air can become muggy.
As one person noted about base housing on an online review of Misawa at BaseofPreference.com: "The worst part is no air conditioning for the 6 hot weeks of summer."
Base officials hope to change that, but housing residents shouldn’t put away their fans.
A series of projects to upgrade the base’s electrical infrastructure and install air conditioning to more than 2,000 family housing and dormitory units is in the planning stages, they said. But the quality-of-life initiative is expected to cost more than $100 million and take 10 to 15 years to complete — and additional approvals are still needed.
To get the green light from Pacific Air Forces, base civil engineers must first balance what likely will be a bigger utility footprint with energy reductions elsewhere. A presidential mandate requires DOD installations to reduce energy consumption by 2 percent to 3 percent annually, Jijina said.
"Adding air conditioning is contrary to that," he said. "We have to balance both, and that is going to take time and money."
The goal is to offset higher utility costs from air conditioning with conservation projects such as ground-source heat pumps and energy-efficient buildings with better glass and insulation, said Merlin Miller, 35th Civil Engineer Squadron deputy base civil engineer.
The base will seek air conditioning project funding in increments from the Air Force, officials said. The bulk of the work will entail replacing 30-year-old utility lines to support new cooling systems.
The type of air conditioning to be installed has yet to be determined, Miller said, but it likely won’t be in the form of energy-eating window units.
He also stressed that the new DOD regulation doesn’t authorize housing occupants to install their own air conditioning, including portable units. The only exception is for residents with certain medical conditions, Miller said.
Some facilities at Misawa, including common areas such as the commissary, base exchange and community center, already have air conditioning, officials said. Whether additional work centers will get air conditioning is still being determined.
