How cold should aircon be set on public transport?

[najaB]

So you have to cart a jumper around all day instead of having the air con set at a decent temperature?

Thing is, "decent" for you might well be on the warm side for a lot of other people. At least if there was a standard temperature you'd know what to expect and could plan accordingly.

 

[Horizon22]

So you have to cart a jumper around all day instead of having the air con set at a decent temperature?

“Decent” is incredibly subjective.

 

[43066]

So you have to cart a jumper around all day instead of having the air con set at a decent temperature?

It’s over 30 degrees today. You’re seriously complaining about trains being too cold?!

At times it feels like people take any excuse to moan for the sake of it on this forum.

 

[Horizon22]

It’s over 30 degrees today. You’re seriously complaining about trains being too cold?!

At times it feels like people take any excuse to moan for the sake of it on this forum.

I’d agree! People complain if there’s not air con, too much air con, windows are opened / can’t be opened etc. Cannot win. Obviously with the travelling public there are a lot of different opinions, but sometimes people have to accept their opinion is a minority one.

 

[greyman42]

It’s over 30 degrees today. You’re seriously complaining about trains being too cold?!

At times it feels like people take any excuse to moan for the sake of it on this forum.

I love it when it hot like this so why would i want to get on a train that is cold? Many people go abroad to enjoy temperatures like this so why is it some people in this country complain about it being too hot as soon as it gets over 25 degrees? We will soon have about 9 months of winter so why can people not just enjoy it instead of seemingly taking refuge in cold trains.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I love it when it hot like this so why would i want to get on a train that is cold? Many people go abroad to enjoy temperatures like this so why is it some people in this country complain about it being too hot as soon as it gets over 25 degrees? We will soon have about 9 months of winter so why can people not just enjoy it instead of seemingly taking refuge in cold trains.

Because some of us don't like hot weather!

A hint: if you ever go to the US or to a south east Asian country take plenty of jumpers, they like good, powerful aircon in most buildings and vehicles.

 

[43066]

I love it when it hot like this so why would i want to get on a train that is cold? Many people go abroad to enjoy temperatures like this so why is it some people in this country complain about it being too hot as soon as it gets over 25 degrees? We will soon have about 9 months of winter so why can people not just enjoy it instead of seemingly taking refuge in cold trains.

I like hot weather too. I don’t enjoy being too hot, especially on a train. That’s why aircon was invented!

Because some of us don't like hot weather!

A hint: if you ever go to the US or to a south east Asian country take plenty of jumpers, they like good, powerful aircon in most buildings and vehicles.

Indeed. Trip to Thailand coming up? Forget shorts, suncream and flip flops. Just make sure you pack some good jumpers.

 

[westv]

Hardly anybody will carry a jumper on a hot day 'just in case".
A large proportion of people will feel chilled if directly in the line of an air con jet for long enough if wearing hot weather clothes.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Hardly anybody will carry a jumper on a hot day 'just in case".

If you know:
1. Train aircon is as it is
2. You get cold in train aircon

Then you're silly not to!

 

[greyman42]

Hardly anybody will carry a jumper on a hot day 'just in case".
A large proportion of people will feel chilled if directly in the line of an air con jet for long enough if wearing hot weather clothes.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[W-on-Sea]

I used to love commuting on c2c 357s. The air conditioning was almost Arctic in the summer.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Hardly anybody will carry a jumper on a hot day 'just in case".
A large proportion of people will feel chilled if directly in the line of an air con jet for long enough if wearing hot weather clothes.

Errr... why not sit somewhere else then?

 

[bunnahabhain]

When the train is moving at speed, probably. But not so much if there's disruption and the train is either moving very slowly or stopped for an extended period.

It draws in hot air from the radiators and from outside generally. I've had 158s which were 30c inside but outside was 38c. It was doing its job as it should do and reducing the temperature.

 

[westv]

Errr... why not sit somewhere else then?

There might not be anywhere else.

 

[Shrop]

It’s over 30 degrees today. You’re seriously complaining about trains being too cold?!

At times it feels like people take any excuse to moan for the sake of it on this forum.

After a quick browse of this thread I really don't get some of the comments. If the air con on a train is working far harder than it should be and the temperature in the carriage is, say, 16C, that's seriously cold if you're dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. It might be a joke to ridicule it if you're outside in 30C plus at the time and your imagination can only cope with thinking about 15 minutes at 16C, but that may be because you've not actually experienced going from one extreme to another, for around two full hours. If you had, you probably wouldn't think it's a joke.

As to the main point, if the air con is malfunctioning, does no one have any responsibility to put it right? Or to check it thoroughly before letting the train back into service rather than just fitting a new part and hoping it works without a thorough test?

If the train is released back into service with faulty air con, I would have thought the first person to notify would have been the train manager - is this wrong? As a passenger who has experienced trains which are both far too hot and far too cold, I have met some very helpful train managers, but I have also met some who are clueless and/or completely unhelpful - thankfully most are helpful. I've also been on trains where the train manager simply can't be found, usually on a Friday or Saturday evening when he/she (understandably) simply doesn't want to face teenagers who are threatening and have clearly already been drinking and then demand half fare travel - if they admit to having the means to pay at all that is.

I could go on, suffice to say that there seems to be surprisingly little understanding of some of the genuine problems that passengers face, and also a somewhat shameful attitude of "I won't be using trains again" rather than trying to find a way to improve things.

To conclude, I enjoy hot weather and if necessary I'm willing to carry around a wet flannel and a bottle of water as a means of cooling down when little or nothing else is available. I also believe in putting on an extra sweater and moving myself around in order to keep warm when it's too cold, but these things said, if I've paid for a service, I like to think it's provided in reasonable comfort.

 

[Alanko]

I love it when it hot like this so why would i want to get on a train that is cold? Many people go abroad to enjoy temperatures like this so why is it some people in this country complain about it being too hot as soon as it gets over 25 degrees? We will soon have about 9 months of winter so why can people not just enjoy it instead of seemingly taking refuge in cold trains.

This is a slightly baffling take.

I enjoy hot weather on holiday if I don't have to do anything. Being crammed in with my fellow commuters on the other hand? I want the luxury of air conditioning!

I was on two ScotRail 385s today. One was set to the the slightly sharp end of cool. The other had no air conditioning engaged at all and was fairly hot and smelly.

 

[NSE]

It’s entirely subjective. As someone who overheats very quickly, I love the aircon. I also love the heat in terms of going out and enjoying it, but commuting in it can be horrible. I had a job interview recently and was very close to taking my smart clothes in a bag, arriving early and changing there so I didn’t get all sweaty on the train. Even when the train isn’t particularly warm to most people I know I heat up quickly and can get sweaty. I find that embarrassing (particularly for an interview) so I had a solution. I often take shorts and flip flops to work in my bag in the summer for my return journey and occasionally in the mornings if the temperature requires it.

 

[Bletchleyite]

After a quick browse of this thread I really don't get some of the comments. If the air con on a train is working far harder than it should be and the temperature in the carriage is, say, 16C, that's seriously cold if you're dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. It might be a joke to ridicule it if you're outside in 30C plus at the time and your imagination can only cope with thinking about 15 minutes at 16C, but that may be because you've not actually experienced going from one extreme to another, for around two full hours. If you had, you probably wouldn't think it's a joke.

Where are you getting 16 degrees from? Train aircon is usually set to 20 or 21. The only place you'll get 16 is the LNR 319s with the broken heating in December (they know it's broken but it's too big a job to be bothered fixing it on units that only have months left in service now).

 

[Shrop]

Where are you getting 16 degrees from? Train aircon is usually set to 20 or 21. The only place you'll get 16 is the LNR 319s with the broken heating in December (they know it's broken but it's too big a job to be bothered fixing it on units that only have months left in service now).

16 was a guess if the aircon is malfunctioning and blasting out much more than it should be. As I read the OP it sounded like this was roughly what was happening.

 

[Bletchleyite]

16 was a guess if the aircon is malfunctioning and blasting out much more than it should be. As I read the OP it sounded like this was roughly what was happening.

I have never come across that (unlike not cooling enough). I suspect it is perception on a hot day where 20 feels really cold when you have stepped into it from 30 odd.

 

[Wolfie]

A policy seemingly perfectly designed to irritate pretty much everyone, as very few people will be comfortable with *both* of those extremes.

Plus there have been many studies showing that optimum productivity is at around 21-22 degrees, and falls off considerably below 20 and above 25, so such a policy isn't going to do a lot for the economy either.

Re your second para it's not that simple. There is a gender issue too. Most of those studies involve men. There is evidence that optimum temperatures for women are 1-2C warmer than for men.

 

[dk1]

Re your second para it's not that simole. Most of those studies involve men. There is evidence that optimum temperatures for women are 1-2C warmer than for men.

That’s odd because it’s usually the female members of catering staff that ask me to drop the saloon temp.

 

[Bletchleyite]

That’s odd because it’s usually the female members of catering staff that ask me to drop the saloon temp.

There may be roughly monthly physiological reasons for that.

 

[dk1]

There may be roughly monthly physiological reasons for that.

And the rest lol

 

[Wolfie]

That’s odd because it’s usually the female members of catering staff that ask me to drop the saloon temp.

Battle for the thermostat: Gender and the effect of temperature on cognitive performance - PMC

This paper studies differences in the effect of temperature on cognitive performance by gender in a large controlled lab experiment (N = 543). We study performance in math, verbal and cognitive reflection tasks and find that the effects of ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Hope that l can successfully post the key point from the intro (some other articles were behind pay firewalls)...

"The fact that women generally prefer higher indoor temperatures than men is well supported by survey evidence [1–4]. This difference in preferences, sometimes referred to as the “battle of the thermostat,” is passionately discussed in popular culture and has received considerable media attention [5–7]. Surprisingly then, the research examining the impact of temperature on cognitive performance [8] has not explored a link between gender and temperature response."

 

[Shrop]

About a month ago, I travelled on Southern from East Croydon to Southampton - not a line that's exactly a pleasure even under the best of circumstances, but on this occasion it was a hot day, yet the train was really cold inside. Needless to say after sitting on the train for two hours plus in T shirt and shorts I was extremely cold.

Speaking to friends since I've heard other similar stories mostly involving Cross Country trains. Don't remember trains being kept so icy cold in previous summers. Has there been a change of policy?

I have never come across that (unlike not cooling enough). I suspect it is perception on a hot day where 20 feels really cold when you have stepped into it from 30 odd.

I agree, perception can be deceptive especially on a really hot day, however I can't speak for the OP, who I've quoted again here for info, that would need the OP to make further comment. What I would say though, is that I have experienced 18 degrees (as measured), when it's nearer to 30 outside. This really is unreasonably cold to be sitting still for a couple of hours, especially if you happen to be in a seat where you can feel the cold air blowing on to you, and when you don't have anything warmer than a t-shirt and shorts with you.

 

[westv]

I agree, perception can be deceptive especially on a really hot day, however I can't speak for the OP, who I've quoted again here for info, that would need the OP to make further comment. What I would say though, is that I have experienced 18 degrees (as measured), when it's nearer to 30 outside. This really is unreasonably cold to be sitting still for a couple of hours, especially if you happen to be in a seat where you can feel the cold air blowing on to you, and when you don't have anything warmer than a t-shirt and shorts with you.

As I've already mentioned, I think 90% of the problem is the fact that train air con vents are often pointing in the wrong direction.
Really they need to point up rather than down directly at passengers. I've no ides why designers didn't do this.

 

[gg1]

Re your second para it's not that simple. There is a gender issue too. Most of those studies involve men. There is evidence that optimum temperatures for women are 1-2C warmer than for men.

My observation of numerous disagreements about the optimum temperature in the office over my 20+ years in the workplace is it's size (in terms of width) rather than gender which is the biggest determinate, ie larger people are more inclined to prefer a lower temperature.

 

[PeterY]

It’s over 30 degrees today. You’re seriously complaining about trains being too cold?!

At times it feels like people take any excuse to moan for the sake of it on this forum.

Living in a top floor flat, I'd welcome the chance to travel in a freezing cold train today

 

[Bletchleyite]

As I've already mentioned, I think 90% of the problem is the fact that train air con vents are often pointing in the wrong direction.
Really they need to point up rather than down directly at passengers. I've no ides why designers didn't do this.

Some of us prefer moving air. The fix to that is personal vents as per planes so you can choose, but it's cost and another thing to break. I've only ever seen them on some Southeastern Networker EMUs.