Peculiarities/Annoyances of the buildings you work in
Discussion
Our office building is BREEAM certified. Its some EU thing that basically means your building is environmentally friendly or whatever. They achieved this by fitting good insulation and not fitting things like air-conditioning. So how to keep cool in the summer? well there is a vent in the ceiling of each room which you open. You then open the windows and air shall circulate.
Except. It doesn't.
Most of the building is south facing. They also fitted large floor to ceiling windows and right outside there is a vast expanse of black tarmac. So what really happens is: Your office becomes an oven thanks to the big windows and direct sun and the air immediately outside the window is no cooler because its being roasted by the tarmac. As a result, we were sat in nearly 40 degree heat one year. It prompted many to buy portable AC units, which are less efficient and less good. Defeating the object. Strangely they did fit AC, in the stairwells where it isn't needed.
The next one is a bit more lighthearted. All the toilets are located in the same place on each floor. Makes for easy plumbing. But there must be angles in the pipework because if you are using say, the urinal in the ground floor toilet, you can tell when someone upstairs has just flushed a number 2: You can hear their turd ping-ponging its way down the soil pipe with a wet thud every time it hits the pipe wall at a bend.
Except. It doesn't.
Most of the building is south facing. They also fitted large floor to ceiling windows and right outside there is a vast expanse of black tarmac. So what really happens is: Your office becomes an oven thanks to the big windows and direct sun and the air immediately outside the window is no cooler because its being roasted by the tarmac. As a result, we were sat in nearly 40 degree heat one year. It prompted many to buy portable AC units, which are less efficient and less good. Defeating the object. Strangely they did fit AC, in the stairwells where it isn't needed.
The next one is a bit more lighthearted. All the toilets are located in the same place on each floor. Makes for easy plumbing. But there must be angles in the pipework because if you are using say, the urinal in the ground floor toilet, you can tell when someone upstairs has just flushed a number 2: You can hear their turd ping-ponging its way down the soil pipe with a wet thud every time it hits the pipe wall at a bend.
I'm currently in the Gibraltar office. On the 6th floor annexe where I am working the AC is not locked down. In the past we've had females sat shivering with scarves and cardigans in searing heat, I am sat with sweat pouring off me in shorts and flip-flops - truly awful. Try and switch on the AC and they'd get up, stamp over and turn it off. Place it like a sweatbox.
However now they have come to an arrangement - the AC is set to 24. It's a boiling hot part of the world and the AC is set to 24 - I don't have my central heating set to that in the depths of winter.
However now they have come to an arrangement - the AC is set to 24. It's a boiling hot part of the world and the AC is set to 24 - I don't have my central heating set to that in the depths of winter.
Mines similar in the "eco" stakes; we made it to 34 degrees a couple of months ago.
My other bug bear is the LA policy on worker car parking provision or lack of. Business park is isolated so no real public transport but it was assumed to be a viable option; the result is cars everywhere HGV's struggle and if there was a fire the appliance wouldn't get anywhere near as close as it should.
My other bug bear is the LA policy on worker car parking provision or lack of. Business park is isolated so no real public transport but it was assumed to be a viable option; the result is cars everywhere HGV's struggle and if there was a fire the appliance wouldn't get anywhere near as close as it should.
Nothing too bad here thankfully. The temperature control is not great but only a couple of times in the summer have we been sat uncomfortably hot, and a couple of times in winter it got very cold.
There's no public transport within about half a mile but this was still decided to be a good place to put a business park - fortunately there is ample car parking but for those who do walk up from the bus stop, there is no proper pavement next to the dual carriageway, just a kind of muddy path over the verge.
Nobody who ever visits the building realises that the car park access goes all around the building and is a one-way system, and the sign which indicates it is a one way system is placed in such a way that you can't read it if you are parked in the visitor car parking, so you get several people a day trying to drive out of the "in" road.
There's no public transport within about half a mile but this was still decided to be a good place to put a business park - fortunately there is ample car parking but for those who do walk up from the bus stop, there is no proper pavement next to the dual carriageway, just a kind of muddy path over the verge.
Nobody who ever visits the building realises that the car park access goes all around the building and is a one-way system, and the sign which indicates it is a one way system is placed in such a way that you can't read it if you are parked in the visitor car parking, so you get several people a day trying to drive out of the "in" road.
The gents toilets nearest my desk have a movement sensor on the lights but it is set to too short a time, so on Fridays when fewer people are in the office and no-one else comes into the toilets, the lights can go out if you take your time in 2 of the 3 traps. The closest trap to the door is within 'range' of the sensor so you can wave your arms from a seated position to turn the lights back on.
Used to work in a 4 story 2yr old modern office with genius designed floor to ceiling windows! In the event of any sort of sun the whole office almost instantly turned into a sauna and trying to see a computer screen was hopeless. They had those soleiz? soley? thingmys but the sun just shone underneath them. To add to the awful design, the blinds had hundreds of fairly sizable rectangular holes in them so, even when closed, the sun blasted in through the little holes and gave you a migraine by flashing if the blinds moved. Whoever designed that place needed shooting!
The building I now work in is a converted depot. (basically a big machinery shed) so its currently raining quite heavy and I can't hear myself think. Fun when your on the phone during thunder showers.
The building I now work in is a converted depot. (basically a big machinery shed) so its currently raining quite heavy and I can't hear myself think. Fun when your on the phone during thunder showers.
Another air con issue here. Our recently refurbished offices were previously labs and the AC system is specced to cope with lots of fridges, freezers and incubators pumping out heat. Now, even on the lowest setting it's cold enough store sides of meat in here.
Sometimes they switch it off completely and the place heats up to an unbearable temperature (top floor lots of glass). Therefore we have two temperatures in our office - too hot or too cold.
All the women sit in coats and scarves, whilst all the blokes sit in shirts pretending they aren't cold.
Sometimes they switch it off completely and the place heats up to an unbearable temperature (top floor lots of glass). Therefore we have two temperatures in our office - too hot or too cold.
All the women sit in coats and scarves, whilst all the blokes sit in shirts pretending they aren't cold.
Big HQ building, 3500+ on site... No A/C. At all. "air circulation" means that the air is stale in the centre of each floor, or you're freezing as the wall opens up to vent excess CO2.
Such s
t design.
I won't get into the volume of glass that make it like a greenhouse, or how quickly colds spread due to the air systems, or how sweaty the changing rooms are...
Such s
t design.I won't get into the volume of glass that make it like a greenhouse, or how quickly colds spread due to the air systems, or how sweaty the changing rooms are...
Before our office was refurbished and the reception area moved, the toilet for the office behind the reception had, let's say, a ventilation issue. The extractor fan in the toilet would seemingly just extract into the ceiling void and, since this wasn't deemed adequate, another one was fitted just outside the toilet in the corridor. This also just sucked the 'vapours' up into the ceiling void, pushed them around and over the false wall, and straight into the reception area. It was quite something when you had important visitors waiting in the reception, and someone had just had a thorough clear-out.
Dog Star said:
However now they have come to an arrangement - the AC is set to 24. It's a boiling hot part of the world and the AC is set to 24 - I don't have my central heating set to that in the depths of winter.
If the weather is that hot, then a 24c dehumidified indoor climate is probably quite comfortable. Relativity and all that. Not somewhere I worked, but nearby - and it regularly caused traffic chaos.
Bridgewater Place in Leeds...
Channels the wind to a level that a few years back a panel van was blown over killing an unfortunate pedestrian.
The road used to be closed to high sided vehicles as a result during high winds, then protective pedestrian screens were implemented and now apparently some huge wind baffle 'wings' (haven't seen these as I no longer live in Leeds).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-4160846...
Bridgewater Place in Leeds...
Channels the wind to a level that a few years back a panel van was blown over killing an unfortunate pedestrian.
The road used to be closed to high sided vehicles as a result during high winds, then protective pedestrian screens were implemented and now apparently some huge wind baffle 'wings' (haven't seen these as I no longer live in Leeds).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-4160846...
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