Air conditioning units have been reported missing from dozens of businesses and private residences, said Detective Tonya Borman, the Police Department’s Crime Solvers coordinator. Each of the units are valued at more than $200,000.

Some cases saw several of the units taken out at one time while other thefts were from unoccupied residences with for-sale signs on the front. Many of the units were broken down into parts, however some were taken whole.

Air conditioning units situated in fenced-in yards are the ones that are best protected, Bernstein said. Installing motion-sensor lights and video surveillance is also said to help.

People who have had their air conditioning units stolen over the past five years have installed a cage around the unit to prevent it from being stolen again.

Any suspicious activity is asked to be reported to police straight away.

If you are looking to install an air conditioning unit into your office or home then make sure that you speak to Airconco.com today. Supplying, installing and servicing fitted air conditioning units since 1986, the team know everything there is to know about the world of air conditioning.

From the design and specification of your air conditioning unit to reliable air conditioning maintenance, or friendly and helpful staff will be more than happy to talk you through your options. Call Airconco.com today at 020 8346 6000.

Neither flu nor air pollution could explain the association, according to the British Medical Journal.

“As it gets colder, think about limiting the time outside,” said researcher and doctoral student Krishnan Bhaskaran, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

“Elderly people and those with heart disease were at highest risk and should pay extra attention to their clothing if they plan to spend time in wintry weather.”

It isn’t particularly clear from the data how lower temperatures would trigger heart attacks though boffins have suggested that cooling could increase blood clotting and make the blood thicker, or increase blood pressure.

Based on hospital records for more than 84,000 people who had suffered heart attacks, they calculated that every one-degree temperature drop on a given day was linked to a two percent risk increase over the next month. So with 146,000 heart attacks every year in the UK, just a few degrees of cold would equate to several hundred extra cases.

Great! With such er

The figures emanate from a report put together by ExchangeandMart.co.uk and suggests that a mammoth 81% of people class air-con as essential and would name it as a decisive factor when purchasing a new car.  

In contrast, 67% said a TV or DVD player for passengers isn’t important at all and 58% say the same about sub woofers.

Commenting on the poll, Michael Tang, Marketing Communications Manager at Exchange and Mart, said: “Our survey shows that motorists value practical features the most. When we asked respondents to name the essential items, air conditioning was the clear winner with 81% agreeing, followed by alarms and immobilisers with 68%. In contrast, TV/DVD players and sub woofers were only crucial to 9%.”

In Europe, air conditioning in vehicles is exhibiting the biggest growth, over the last 10 years going from close to zero to a 95 per cent prevalence. Does that mean the other 5% are left pointing fans at themselves or other types of portable air conditioning?

A/C does, of course, slightly add to fuel consumption though having the windows open would also increase wind resistance which can add up to 10% to your fuel consumption, especially at speed.

For an air conditioning service for your car, office or home, contact Airconco today.

But in America, needless air con use is becoming a bit of an issue where air conditioning guzzles 15% of total American energy consumption, higher than any other country, using the same amount of fossil fuel as the whole of Africa employs for all its energy needs.

While British air conditioning is a much smaller scale due to temperature and the fact that it’s generally a not such a societal “must-have”, its use is still set to grow by 50% over the next 20 years, according to the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE).

“Air conditioning’s environmental damage is not limited to emissions of greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting chemicals,” says writer Stan Cox, whose book Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World is generating a buzz in America. “Lavish deployment of indoor climate control may indeed make it possible for us to live anywhere on the planet, but is that wise?”

“It’s a subject which people haven’t thought about for a long time. When you look at the technologies that have changed our world over 50 years, like cars, and computers, and TV, we have debated their costs and benefits. But air conditioning has been humming in the background the whole time.”

As far as the UK is concerned, “The air conditioning service industry uses an equation developed in the 1960s,” says Fergus Nicol, deputy director of the low energy architecture research unit at London Metropolitan University. “It allows engineers to calculate the required temperature for air conditioning by inputting data concerning the size of a building, what clothes the engineers expect people to be wearing, and so on. But we’ve done research by asking people inside buildings what they feel. And what we’ve found is, people generally adapt to the conditions they are put in without the need for cooling. They can change what they are wearing, for example. It might sound obvious, but it is not factored into engineers’ thinking.”

It’s taken 40 years to match the New York subway network but finally, the London Tube is now fitted with air conditioning.

Last week, the first London Underground service took off with a cool breeze sweeping through the carriage to the relief of thousands of commuters who have complained of stuffy, uncomfortable temperatures during busy times when bodies are pressed up against others in rush hour.

In fact, many commuters have spoken of the ‘unbearably hot’ conditions during the summer months thanks to the deep lines and lack of ventilation; emphasised by the roaring temperatures in 2006 which reached as high as 47 degrees Celsius (116 degrees Fahrenheit).

The new air conditioning service will be present on 40% of the network but there are still grumbles about some deep-lying stations which are still without air con.

“Air-conditioning for the deep-lying lines is a long-term project,” said a Transport for London spokeswoman.

“We are improving conditions on Victoria line trains but there is a lack of space for air-conditioning units on these deep-lying lines. We are looking at various solutions but you have to remember we are dealing with infrastructure which is very old.”

New York’s subway system introduced its first air-conditioned carriages in 1967.

]]> http://www.airconco.com/news/london-tube-finally-rolls-out-air-con-1104.html/feed 0 http://www.airconco.com/news/forget-air-conditioning-time-to-think-hot-505.html http://www.airconco.com/news/forget-air-conditioning-time-to-think-hot-505.html#comments Sun, 01 Aug 2010 11:44:12 +0000 Richard Salmon http://www.airconco.com/news/?p=505 Winter is just a couple of months away and already, we’re preparing for another cold one. Portable air conditioning devices will be safely stowed away for the next holiday or British two-week summer as we prepare for the frosty season…

So What Can You Do?

a) Sit at home all day drapped in an electric blanket with your feet soaking in a pool of boiling water (please don’t try this at home).

or

b) Take heed of some of our ideas for slightly more interesting approaches keeping warm this winter.

1) Take a Trip to the Hottest Place on Earth

No, it’s not Elle MacPherson in a hot tub after eating a curry. Erta Ale is the most active volcano in Ethiopia and is officially the hottest natural place on Earth! At a whopping 1250°C , it’s one of the few volcanoes on the Planet that have a persistent lava lake, anyone fancy a dip?

2) Holiday to ‘Hell’

Yowzer, named by locals as “The Door to Hell”, Darvas in Turkmenistan might not be the first place you’d choose for a holiday but it’d certainly be a hot one!

Found by a team of geologists 35 years ago, they unexpectedly landed upon this huge underground cavern filled with gas. They ignited it so no poisonous fumes would come out and like a level from Bowser’s Castle it has been burning ever since!

View The Door to Hell in a larger map

3) Adopt an Army of Bombardier Beetles

If travelling isn’t your thing then why not get you hands on some of these creative creatures. The Bombardier Beetle can blast boiling liquid at it’s enemies. It’s abdomen contains two reactant chemical compounds in separate reservoirs, when mixed it creates a fiery blast. Each time it does this it shoots 100 times very rapidly. The damage caused can be fatal to attacking insects and small creatures, and is painful to human skin. We reckon that with a little training they could keep you warm throughout the winter (if you don’t mind the occasional scald mark!).

4) Feeling Chilly, Eat Some Chilli!

Here’s probably the most sadistic of our sizzling suggestions. The hottest chilli on the planet is The Dorset Naga, 10x hotter than the Habanero the Dorset Naga packs a punch that makes Mike Tyson look weaker than a wet paper bag.

The world hottest curry comes in the form of “The Bombay Burner” a curry so hot it requires diners to sign a disclaimer before attempting to eat it.

5) Enter The World Sauna Championship

Picture this, you’re at home snuggled up on the sofa watching the latest episode of ‘The Darling Buds of May’, when all of a sudden you have an epiphany, you consider what life would be like scrunched up against some sweaty Scandinavian men in the worlds hottest sauna, and if only you could win a giant hairbrush in the process. Well if this sounds like fun to you then ‘The World Sauna Championship’ is right up you alley, 110 degrees Celsius, the longer you last the closer you get to winning the coveted hairbrush. (I might stay at home today!)

6) On The Subject of Saunas

We are always fascinated to see how our friends in the far east can turn pretty much anything into an outlandish prank, well believe it or not they’ve done it again! This one might put you off going to a mountain top Sauna ever again! (2:30 onwards is amazing!)

7) Beat T-Shirt Man at His Own Game

The Health Service recommend to layer up in the winter so we and 11 million other people found this! It’s T-Shirt Man, the world record holder for the number of T-Shirts worn. 155 T-Shirts, 4 hours and 100 pounds gained in weight!

8) Another World Record to Get you Sweating.

It’s everyones favorite speed clapper Kent “Toast” French, some people dedicate their lives to doing good, some dedicate it to clapping…

9) If All The Above Fail…

We’ve come to the end of our journey, we hope that our suggestions have ensured you a long warm winter. If you still find yourself lacking significant warmth then we have one final suggestion… weighing in 10,000 Kelvin (that’s science talk for very hot!) it’s a nuclear blast! It might cause the destruction of a nation (and a few of it’s neighbors) but for that nanosecond of being toasty warm isn’t it worth it?

Any car purchased before the 1990’s was installed with a air conditioning unit most likely powered by Freon (R-12). The company were ideal in giving drivers a comfortable environment and even better at releasing greenhouse gases that were harmful to the ozone layer. So in the mid 1990’s GM’s switched to a less harmful R-134a.

The R-134a quickly became more popular but still emits greenhouse gases into the envrionment that don’t break down very quickly. The refirgerant has an atmospheric life of more than 13 years which gives it a global warming potential (GWP) rating over 1,400.

So through a partnership with Honeywell the new GM air conditioning unit will use HFO-1234yf a chemical that breaks down much faster in the air than a R134a. And instead of 13 years the chemical breaks down in 11 days making the GWP 4, which is 99.7 per cent lower than R-134a.

The greener air conditioning system will be used in 2013 editions of the Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac models in the US. The new air con system will not only hit EPA’s new motor vehicle greenhouse gas regulations for 2016, but it will also set the standards for car companies around the globe.

The Ravenwood Nursing & Rehabilitation Centre – who have risked losing its licence – had air conditioning pumps and compressors that had been inoperable since last summer, with blowers and filters in patients’ rooms dirty and clogged.

The state Office of Health Care Quality found that on July 2 the centres chilled circulation pumps had failed and the temperatures of the patient care floors had begun rising, reaching 90-96 degrees by the time state inspectors arrived on July 6th. One of the West Franklin Street centre patients had to be treated for heat-related dehydration at a local hospital.

The home’s walk-in refrigerator was found with the door propped open with a food cart to help cool the kitchen down. Due to this, fridge temperatures had climbed to 60 degree. Safe temperature for food storage is 41 degrees.

“The chronic problem we saw was a failure to maintain a cooling system that could withstand the heat that was predicted that week,” said Nancy Grimm, director of the Office of Health Care Quality. “The acute problem was a failure to communicate and respond to the loss of the air conditioning” before it became a crisis, she said. “There may be some financial issues as well, which we’re working through right now.”

Chief Operating Officer of Ravenwood Healthcare Inc, Michael D. Smith, issued a statement expressing gratitude to the state and the city for full assistance with what he called  “our recent voluntary evacuation of our facility following unexpected air conditioning problems.”

The state’s report “reflects some needed work” on the air conditioning system, Smith said, but it “actually only became inoperable on [July 4]…It is unfortunate that the system could not be immediately repaired once inoperable.”

However the state’s investigation found that Ravenwood’s managers were aware about the breakdowns in the air conditioning for more than a year, failed to take timely, effective action to avoid a complete failire, and did notify the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene of their problem.

Grim said that Ravenwood did nothing to get people out saying, “They didn’t do anything to ensure or suggest that. So we said, ‘We’ve got to get these people out of here.’ And they agreed to it.”

“The outcome of these problems together is that 150 residents were abruptly uprooted from their home, family and belongings, and they had little control over the situation, which we found to be a psychosocial harm to the patients,” Grimm said.

At present the nursing home is empty and the $52,500 has been ordered to a draft plan of correction in 10 days. Ravenwood have three months to achieve ’substantial compliance’ with state and federal standards of care.

The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will recommend that Ravenwood will be denied Medicare or Medicaid payments for new admissions if the home is not in substantial compliance by October 16th.

Patients will not return to the facility until it is reinspected.

Smith, Ravenwood’s COO, said the air-conditioning system has been repaired and inspected. “All the units are running and cooling the facility,” he said. “We are currently working with [the Office of Health Care Quality] and hope to begin returning residents to their home within the next several days following a revisit by their office.”

Authorities were made aware of the situation after a patient called 911 complaining that the building was too hot and ‘he wasn’t able to breathe’ on July 6th according to the state’s report.

When paramedics arrived Ravenwood personnel began to move patients to an area of the building with working air conditioning and portable air conditioning was brought in.

The two-tier pricing makes it seem as if air conditioning is a taxing extra expense, costing hotels thousands of dollars monthly. In reality, an air conditioning service is relatively cost-effective, and certainly not the power guzzler that many people believe it to be.

American air conditioning company AeroSys were one of several to learn that air conditioning must be cheap, after their units were withdrawn from the market due to excess electricity usage. Despite the cost-inflating behaviour of ageing air conditioning units, newer air conditioners are required to maintain a certain power level by law.

This leaves the actual cost of air conditioning at very low rates. When used correctly, an effective air conditioner can cool an entire home for less than two pounds daily. Energy conservation advocates claim that expensive power bills are often the result of air conditioning misuse, not the unit itself.

Small changes such as fan strength and room temperature can greatly influence electricity usage, with high-power fans and extreme temperatures drawing more power than moderate use. The message for consumers is clear – air conditioning isn’t expensive, except when used ineffectively. With the right strategy, air conditioning can be a cooling method no more expensive than the average ceiling fan.

However, for some designers, air conditioning has become a powerful, unique, and visually appealing design element – providing an effective and also aesthetic air conditioning service. These two examples of innovative air conditioning design prove that there is design value in an air conditioning unit, no matter how beige, boxy, and uninspiring it is.

1. The Lloyds Building, London

The Lloyds Building is an interesting piece of London’s architectural history, and one that’s drawn a lot of praise (and a lot of criticism) across its life. What makes the Lloyds Building so unique is its use of air conditioning ducts, stairs, and other building utilities. Once reserved for the inside of a building, the Lloyds Building uses them as a design element on the outside.

Interesting or just plain ugly? Most architectural critics are fans, citing the building’s innovative use of air conditioning as a major feature of London’s city skyline.

2. The HSBC Headquarters, Hong Kong

Hong Kong is the skyscraper capital of the world, and the giant HSBC Building certainly keeps up with its image. Constructed, like the Lloyds Building, with the air conditioning ducts on the outside, this innovative high-tech structure uses air conditioning as a major design feature. Love it or hate it, this cool construction method has drawn praise from architects and energy efficiency experts alike.