Our physical plant guys are tyrants and have installed a lock box on the thermostat in the building in which I work. The problem is that the vent that blows into my office. While the thermostat thermometer down the hall reads a nice 71 degrees, the thermometer in my office reads 62 degrees. Chilly.
I hate calling the physical plant guys because they will come down and turn on the heat. Idiots. (I’m in Texas.)
Yesterday afternoon I tried to pick the lock on the lock box. I almost got it open. If I can get it to move 1/4" to the left, I will no longer freeze.
HVAC gods hear my cry for warmth. Please speak through a Straight Doper to advise h_thur how to jimmy the HVAC thermostat lock. She will make a sacrifice by burning her sweater in your honor.
can you move the controls thru the holes on the side? I used to work somewhere where they had plexiglass covers with holes on the sides. People would adjust the heat with the car keys. Otherwise, just put some Ice on the thermostat lock box. That way, the thermostat will think it is cooler. Or… get a piece of cardboard, and duct-tape it over the vent. When people complain about it being ugly, just state that it looks better than the cold feels. Let me know what happens.
The thermostat is small. The lock box is huge. Keys are too short to reach the lever that adjusts the temp. I tried a paper clip, but it is too weak and keeps bending.
I don’t have any ice.
I’ll go to my other office at lunch and get some stronger paper clips. I really would like to just pick the lock so I can take a screwdriver and take the lock box off. The physical plant guys won’t come over here unless I call them over. There are only 2-3 people here (me and 2 student workers), so I’m not worried about being “caught”.
Would the cardboard really do anything at all? I would think that it would insulate the thermostat against the cold, thus triggering it to spew more icy air.
Cheap locks like they have on thermostat boxes or filing cabinets are easy. The first time I pick a lock after a long period of not picking it may take a minute or two, but with practice I can get most cheap locks in 10 seconds or so.
Expensive locks, even ones like on your front door, are much harder for me.
The trick is, you’ve got to know how locks work. I recommend reading Richard Feynman’s Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynman or Why should you care what other people think(?) in which he describes his lifes adventures. He was known as the lock-picking expert at Los Alamos, and describes picking theory quite nicely.
The basic idea is that you have N pins in the lock, each of which must be pushed to a particular position to allow the lock to turn. In a cheap lock, not all of them are lined up properly, so you can exploit this.
Tools: [ul][li]Small flat blade screwdriver or other ‘turning’ implement. In a pinch, the rounded end of a paper clip works for me, but the screwdriver on one of those keychain swiss army knives is just about perfect.[]Paperclip, unfolded partially so you have a long straight piece and a curved piece to hold it by. It should look something like the numeral '6’but with a straight tail.[/ul][/li]
Procedure:[ul][li]Put the screwdriver in the slot and gently apply torque. It really helps to know which way it needs to turn, but if you don’t it only takes twice as long - just keep trying in each direction. How much torque is a matter that varies by lock, and you’ll get a feel for it with practice. Just don’t go gorilla on it. []Put the straight bit of the paper clip into the lock and start pushing on pins. You can ‘tickle’ them, mash them, whatever.[]You should feel the lock go ‘click’ sometimes and turn just a bit more. This means you are making progress. Keep at it.[]Eventually, the lock will be free to turn just like you had a key in it. Be careful not to turn it all the way - usually you can get the thing open without turning the lock all the way, which allows you to just turn it back to locked again. If you turn it all the way, the pins will reset and you’ll have to pick it again to lock it.[/ul][/li]
What’s going on is that since not all the pins are lined up, the lock essentially becomes a one-pin lock. If you find the right pin, the lock will turn a bit, holding that pin in place and making a different pin be the critical one. Then just repeat. If you find that next pin, the lock will turn a bit more, and so on. Locks that are more expensive have better fitting pins and will be very tough to pick.
It may not have been clear in my post that you need to keep light torque on the screwdriver at all times, and use your other hand to manipulate the pins with the paperclip. You are essentially using the dexterity you have in two hands to do the job a key does on its own.
Perhaps the reason you’re having difficulty picking the lock is that these locks usually use wafer tumblers, cheap disk tumblers, etc. instead of pin tumblers. They respond to a different technique
However, I suggest you not mess with the thermostat – there are ten million ways that could screw up someone else.
It’s far better to directly alter the temperature in your office. It’s the only true way to assure your comfort, no matter what the boneheads at the physical plant do. The cardboard idea isn’t bad, but depending on your HVAC placement, it’s probably ugly, awkward to adjust, etc. A small ceramic space heater may offend your sensibilities (it does mine), but may turn out to be the best solution. Second best might be a small fan (that takes cool air out of your office and brings warm air in.
BTW - have you checked that any cross vents are open and unblocked? I presume you work with the door closed, and if so, those unnoticed ‘do-nothing’ vents may be essential.
I know a heater sounds wasteful, but adjusting the thermostat may be even more so (you just won’t notice it locally)
Strangely, efficiency may be precisely the problem – a few years ago, your computer, monitor, laser printer, fax etc. probably dissipated a few hundred watts of steady heat more than today. Net effect: they took the equivalent of a space heater out of your office through ‘efficiency’. If there’s some clunky, rarely used piece of office equipment lying around, you could put it in your office as a ‘secret heater’ Hey, you could just duct in the exhaust from the office copier into your office - fiberglass duct for quiet, metal for office gossip.
Lock picking was invented before portable drills came around.
Get a drill & drill the lock out. So easy. But in films another thing they do that works is some liquid Nitrogen I think it is, put in on & then hit it with a hammer & it flies apart. Much fun…
My boss has the space heater as the vent is in the doorway between our offices. The vent is in the ceiling and is huge. My boss comes and goes all day long, so I would be constantly removing and replacing the space heater.
The thermostat in my office controls the back part of the building (where the student workers live, um, I mean work). I let them set it. The thermostat in question controls the temp in my boss’s office and in some empty classrooms. The staff in this building are a skeleton crew. I am the only person that is here every day. Adjusting the temp will not affect anyone else - unless the police are having SWAT training out here again. In that case, we let them adjust the temp.
I have several pieces of equipment in my office. An ancient printer, a small refrigerator, 2 computers, and accessories. But I am not any warmer.
I’ll try to pick the lock again this afternoon.
Thank you all for your help. I’ll let you know if I succeed.