FrenchMerican

Can someone explain to me why the powers that be at Heathrow can't be bothered to install aircon? In a crowded terminal, (and lounges,) it should be blowing at 16 degrees on a hot day like today, which would get the ambient temperature between 18-20. Instead it is somewhere between 25-30 at the moment, even in the lounges. What is wrong with these people?!

ahmetdouas

Of course it has aircon! Maybe it's on too low as it costs a lot of cash to run aircon properly = )

FrenchMerican

What is the point of having it at all if not for the comfort of the traveling public? One should not have to sweat in a premium lounge!

kingstontoon

Heathrow (and BA's lounges) is always far too hot. I get that some people don't like the cold, but you can stick an extra layer or two on. I can't keep removing clothing!

Jimmie76

Oh I agree and a restraining order says I musn't.

UKtravelbear

For the number of hot days in the UK air con is simply uneconomic.

phoneticduck

For domestic applications, that might be true.

In the case of modern commercial applications, particularly those with high occupancy, such as an airport, it isn't even a debate.

The issue is most likely down to the set point not being low enough, which on a warm day will of course be more cost effective for them, but not much comfort to pax.

NWIFlyer

I suspect it's much more likely that LHR has HVAC systems installed rather than simply air conditioning. With so much glass in terminals, maintaining the entire terminal to an even and reasonably controlled temperature with potentially large weather swings throughout the year is, I suspect, incredibly difficult - so what happens is you get a fudged compromise, particularly in older terminals such as T3 & T4 where the infrastructure will have been designed around a completely different era.

Even in T5, the amount of heat generated is probably much less than it was on opening with lower energy consumption monitors and other equipment. This means that there's more need for additional heating in some areas, which will be competing with the need to cool in others on days where the sun's heat is magnified by the glass. Not an easy balance, so I'm not surprised it isn't always right.

WorldLux

Temp is IMO ok at LHR. I hate sitting in a room that could rival a fridge/morgue.

Tisbutascratch

But if cold you can put something on. If I'm hot taking clothing off may end up scaring the horses

WorldLux

Tell that to hot food. I hate it when you get hot food and by the time you walked it back to the table it is ice cold because someone thinks that keeping a room below 60F.

Apart from that, having huge temperature differences isn't exactly healthy.

jt82

It's one of the three days of the year when it's actually uncomfortably hot, the rest of the year it's fine

JohnnyColombia

Which terminal were you in OP? I was at T5 today and did not find it uncomfortably hot. It was nice to get on the plane and be a mite cooler but the terminal building was not uncomfortable.

I just Googled HVAC at Heathrow and I wish I had not bothered. It's of a complexity way beyond my layman's understanding of such things.

Swanhunter

It's often stuffy in T5 even when the weather is cooler than today. Not pleasant. Inevitably T2 is a much nicer experience.

phoneticduck

Inevitably?