The project in question consists of four (4) separate residence hall buildings, each consisting of 4 floors at approximately 42,000 s.f. All buildings are composed predominantly of 4-bedroom student apartments shared by 4 occupants each which are occupied all year around through a 12 month lease. Each apartment unit includes toilet rooms and a kitchen with each being served by a split system air-source heat pump. Ventilation air is provided by operable windows. EA Prerequisite 2 requires the project to comply with ASHRAE 90.1-2004 and with some exceptions, 90.1 requires the use of programmable thermostats. Essentially the question is, does the project need to use programmable thermostats? In this building type, using programmable thermostats can potentially create problems as well as increase energy use. For example: 1) The heat pump air handler will use more electrical energy when it uses electric resistance heat instead of the heat pump mode when an unscheduled manual over-ride request calls on it to recover from the heating set back temperature to the occupied temperature, 2) Extra humidity will be introduced when windows are opened to recover to occupied temperatures due to unscheduled manual over-ride requests, and 3) A large number of nuisance maintenance requests should be expected every year when new residents occupy the apartments. ASHRAE 90.1 has an exception to the programmable thermostat requirement for hotel guest rooms (6.4.3.2a), and referring to this exception the ASHRAE User\'s manual says, "While guest rooms are not occupied continuously, the occupancy patterns are not predictable, making the use of time clocks and other off-hour controls difficult to apply." The User Manual description of the space\'s use pattern fits these residence apartments in that each student has a variable schedule; so, it seems reasonable that programmable thermostats will not be required. Complicating the issue is a provision in AHSRAE 90.1 (9.4.1.4) that requires a "master shut-off switch" for hotel guest rooms. A master shut-off for a student apartment residence would be unwanted by the University Owner and potentially a safety hazard. Therefore, electing to call the residence apartments "hotel guest rooms" in order to apply the programmable thermostat and then adding the "master shut-off switch" is not an acceptable alternative. In summary, the question is, would it be acceptable to use non-programmable thermostats and no "master shut-off switch?