22 January 2007

Parliament House gets hotter

| johnboy
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The Canberra Times reports that the air conditioning in Parliament House is being turned down by 2 degrees to see how much water can be saved. It all sounds a bit half arsed.

Asked why she had chosen 24 degrees as the target temperature for the experiment Ms Penfold replied, “Because it is two degrees above 22. We probably need two degrees to give us enough difference to be able to measure what we are doing.

“We will be trying to develop in effect a spreadsheet that will track the relationship between the target temperature, the outside temperature and the water use, and establish what difference it makes to increase the temperature,” she said.

Where parliament leads the other departments will surely follow, what are your thoughts on a comfortable working temperature?

Unmentioned in the article is the minor matter that all the offices in Parliament House have an override thermostat that gives another couple of degrees plus or minus. Anyone want to bet the little buttons will be getting a workout?

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I’m just gob-smacked that Sammy has a wife!

It’s all just an elaborate ruse.

He doesn’t come over as particularly gay to me, what’s the problem?

I’m just gob-smacked that Sammy has a wife!

The person requiring 20C is probably a perverted Public servant looking for young women with their headlights on high beam.

hehe – apparently Beasley lost a lot of weight when they moved from little old Old Parlt House to the great big new house on the hill with its Km long corridors.

oh&s??? i work for a small business…no p.s. whining about a two degree temperature difference here- if it’s hot, drink more water and move slower. it could be worse, i could be fighting fires…..
its a sultry 37.3 now, but it’s knockoff time, so a quick spin on the bike will feel soooo good.
btw, all day in the heat is tops for weight loss….crank the big house to 35 and even beasley will be trim in no time!

Do the OH&S people know about this, gurunik?
Also, at what temp. do you cream yourself?

37.7….into sean connery territory now…..
the bosses office is 26.5.
gotta love a workshop. we hit 45 that hot thurs a few weeks ago……

Temperature is only one parameter. Air exchange, CO2 and oxygen levels are another. Hot or cold days give the air con doing its job. What gets me is when it goes into sleep mode in the afternoon when the temperature is only a couple of degrees between inside and outside. Formulaes for working out the cost, airflow etc would have been used when it was designed by air con engineers assuming it was actually designed.

guru it is only 29 outside. Your work needs to buy some better blinds/insulation.

36.8c, giving brad pitt a run for his money…

TrapperKeeper2:02 pm 22 Jan 07

I think 22 would be a good temperature, though i would like about 20.We measured the temp where i work and it said 27 which is pretty uncomfortable and even hotter on weekends. The temperature setting on the wall never leaves 20 for some reason.

I’m glad I dont work at parliament house… I love the freezer box building I work in! Wouldnt have it any other way!

i wonder what the leg. ass. is set at?

Agreed, Threeze. We hit 29.8 here on Friday before 10am, despite the Facilities team assuring us we had no air-con problems.

34.4 now and getting sexier…..

32.5c and rising in the workshop here. sweat makes you sexy…

I have to say I get quite sleepy when it gets hotter.

Lucky guys, we are without aircon at work and it has been hotter inside than out for the past week. I would be quite happy to have 24 or 26 as my daily temp.

Talking bull again, bt.

comfortable workign temperature is differnet for different people. There has to come a point where the loss of productivity for either too high, or too low temperatures exceeds the savings that are made from heating or cooling an office building. It would take a pretty sophisticted analysis beyond the capabilities of most government departments to draw conclusions on that. not to mention the cost of doing such analysis.

Sounds to me like someone with too much time on their hands trying to justify a job.

VYBerlinaV8_now with_added_grunt11:39 am 22 Jan 07

I find I work better if the temp is a bit low, rather than a bit high. Personally I like it around 20 mark, or even a touch less.

My wife works in the John Gorton Building in Parkes, and she regularly complains that it’s too bloody cold. She often takes a jumper to work, in the middle of summer.

barking toad11:36 am 22 Jan 07

You take cows to work?

I think 24 degrees should be fine. but I have no air-con at home, so it gets up to 30ish…

If, as the CT insinuates, workers are taking jerseys etc to Parlt House, then of course the aircon should be turned down (or is that up?). I worked in Singapore for some time, you had to take jerseys in because of the cold – ridiculous.

Speaking on 666 this morning, Parliamentary Secretary Hilary Penfold stated that at least one person in the house had raised an objection, as they had a medical condition that required them to work in temperatures closer to 20°C (or somesuch).

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