Aircon

[Khun004]

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Most people in Thailand -- Thais and foreigners alike -- have never heard the name of Willis Haviland Carrier.
But, without him, and his invention, most of us wouldn't be here in Thailand.
Only Thais would remain.

If Thailand ever wanted to get rid of foreigners, they don't need to pass any laws expel us.
They only need do one thing: turn off all the air conditioners. _ :eek:
Willis Haviland Carrier is the American businessman who produced the first, commercially viable, air conditioners.

We often overlook the importance of air conditioning to tourism, business, and expat living in today's Thailand, and other tropical countries.
Here's more on the topic:

Brief summary in the first few paragraphs of this essay: http://www.lewrockwell.com/french/french46.html

In-depth article at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_Haviland_Carrier
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[admin]

The history of air-conditioning is a fascinating subject...

I heard a talk at a chamber of commerce meeting once (I can't recall who the person was), but they mentioned that up until WWII many embassies in Bangkok employed people to fan foreign embassies workers non-stop throughout the day...

[Baton Rouge]

Well I certainly work in an air-conditioned environment and I also suffer my fair of sore throats and colds as a result. I don't have it at home, and I don't like sleeping with it on much anyway. I don't even use a fan at home most of the time.

I'm certainly not here to knock aircon, but I think it is well worth noting that it has destroyed the idea that architecture should first look for low-tech ways to naturally deal with the local climate. The old idea - of providing shade and rain protection with wide eaves, with high pitched roofs to shed the rain and take the rising heat from below - seems to have died a complete death. Local architects don't seem to have any idea how to deal with heat and rain any longer. They have basically thrown away all the good old ideas. I suspect most architects here would be better employed frosting birthday cakes.

[The Enforcer!]

they mentioned that up until WWII many embassies in Bangkok employed people to fan foreign embassies workers non-stop throughout the day...
In the British Chamber history, they mention

"The sixties brought about air-conditioning in the more affluent establishments at first, like the bar at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club in 1964, and it was due to the fact that the Borneo Company installed air-conditioning in their Boardroom in the same year that caused the shift in venue of the monthly meetings to there from the British Club."

See http://members.bccthai.com/BCCT/asp/gpages.asp?GPagesID=16&SponsorID=0&p=0

The Enforcer!

[Khun004]

I'm certainly not here to knock aircon, but I think it is well worth noting that it has destroyed the idea that architecture should first look for low-tech ways to naturally deal with the local climate. The old idea - of providing shade and rain protection with wide eaves, with high pitched roofs to shed the rain and take the rising heat from below - seems to have died a complete death. Local architects don't seem to have any idea how to deal with heat and rain any longer. They have basically thrown away all the good old ideas. I suspect most architects here would be better employed frosting birthday cakes.
What a quaint post.

The trend of all human history is exactly the opposite direction suggested in that post above.
There is a name for such ideas: "worship of the primitive".
Among a tiny number of Westerners it has become fashionable to prefer wide eaves, with high pitched roofs, and to denigrate any advanced technology.

But do those people actually build and live the low-tech ways they write about on the Internet?
On the Internet? _ :rolleyes:
A few probably do.

The free market of ideas is a good thing.
So is survival of the fittest, including the fittest of ideas.
Wide eaves, with high pitched roofs rarely survive when people can get aircon. _ :cool:
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[Baton Rouge]

What's primitive about expecting architects to cover the basics? (And 'quaint' is a value-added service I can't afford!).

A specific example would be a house I can see out of this window. The house looks nice, but the architect has neglected to think about how the air-con matches up with the rest of the design. The result is that the comparatively affluent owner has realised that the aircon is costing him too much. So he then has to cover the widows with that ugly green plastic webbing that is used on market gardens, to try and cut down the incoming solar energy.

The idea of survival of the fittest is a simplistic outlook anyway. If designers and builders can't figure out how to complement high-tech things with their inevitably low-tech surroundings, we can hardly call it progress.

[GWR]

Interesting to note that Google has picked up on this thread with a link to 'Carrier' aircons above our posts (intermittently); although I think Carriers are now primarily made in this region.

[jpatokal]

What's primitive about expecting architects to cover the basics? (And 'quaint' is a value-added service I can't afford!).
I'm as anti-Luddite as they get, but I'm with BR here. It's a little too easy to get swept away with the wonders of modernity and then build something utterly inappropriate and impractical. In Finland, for example, it was at one point in the 1970s all the rage to replace traditional peaked eaves with flat concrete roofs -- until they found out the hard way that this means you need to climb up and shovel off the snow all the time, or else the accumulated weight will cause the roof to collapse. And now they're doing the same thing again by building glass-and-steel towers that are incredibly energy-inefficient when it's -30 deg C outside...

[The Enforcer!]

I'm as anti-Luddite as they get, but I'm with BR here. It's a little too easy to get swept away with the wonders of modernity and then build something utterly inappropriate and impractical. In Finland, for example, it was at one point in the 1970s all the rage to replace traditional peaked eaves with flat concrete roofs -- until they found out the hard way that this means you need to climb up and shovel off the snow all the time, or else the accumulated weight will cause the roof to collapse. And now they're doing the same thing again by building glass-and-steel towers that are incredibly energy-inefficient when it's -30 deg C outside...
Luddites of the World Unite!

The Enforcer!

[jpatokal]

BTW, when & where was the first air-con in Thailand installed? In Singapore, the Goodwood Park hotel (the arch-enemy of the Raffles) claims the honor, although I can't find the exact date on the net...

[Baton Rouge]

Luddites of the World Unite!

The Enforcer!
Poor Old Ned Ludd! But there is a lesson to be learned from him. If you value technology more than the people it's supposed to serve, it isn't too surprising if they cut up rough. The likes of Rupert Murdoch never quite figured that out either. Innovators often have a problem relating to others. To them, the technology becomes something more important than the serfs who produce it. Once they have finished fulfilling your fantasies for you you can boot them out.

But of course, unions are no angels either! And I'm not really a Luddite. I usually can't wait to get my hands on the next bit of high-tech. I admit I have forgotten most of it, but I have been involved in both the supply and construction side of things; and I always liked to try out the new stuff. It is a fact, for example, that the average flat roof built in a skilled manner (not just a raft of concrete with a few teaspoons of waterproofing in the screed) has a shelf-life of twenty-five years if you are very lucky. Then they need renovating. All too often the less carefully prepared flat roof will leak from day one, and the room underneath is unusable unless you want to spend a fortune on aircon. But don't ask me. I notice flat roofs here are going out of fashion big time. And having spoken to the owners, they are only too aware that the architects and construction companies aren't that good.

In fairness, folks are going to have to pay more for these services if they want the full benefit of professional knowledge

And I'm just finishing up a house now. I don't have too many complaints in the long-term. I gave the architect and builder plenty of leeway for 90% of the project, with a view to seeing how they deal with things. For the last 10% I intervened because it was obvious that they had not really thought out how to proceed with keeping the building even remotely watertight. Now we are fixing everything ourselves with a bit of help from a local oddjobber relative who has a lot of practical commonsense about these things.

Fashion and/or quaintness doesn't enter into it. I didn't manage to talk them out of those horrible fluted prefab concrete doric half-column facade thingies. I like functional things. But I then painted them in such a way that you hardly notice they are there. To all intents and purposes it doesn't look much different from most of the more recent non-expat residences.

[GWR]

Not much, but a start: -
http://www.carrier.co.th/html/profile.html
Carrier pioneered business in Thailand back in 1930 and expanded the company in 1984 with the help of Mr. Harald (Harris) Link. Mr. Link and Carrier Corporation of America become partners and formed Grimm-Carrier Ltd., then later changed the name to Carrier (Thailand) Ltd.

The Brothers Grimm don't really have the answer either, but the rest of the article is quite interesting: -

http://www.bgrimmgroup.com/eng/Bgrimm_Group/about/index.asp

In 1953, Dr. Gerhard Link, son of Mr Adolf Link became Honorary Consul General of Thailand in Hamburg, succeeding his father. Mr. Herbert Link continued to make the name for B. Grimm and moved the office to a more commercialized area on Nakornsawan Road in 1955. He continued to assist in introducing more technological advancement in to Thailand. B. Grimm participated in many key projects through the next two decades. Its contracting business was highlighted by the successful completion of the Bangkok Planetarium with which B. Grimm had helped to install the latest optical equipment from Carl Zeiss Germany. B Grimm also diversified into air-conditioning System Installation, with commissioned projects with the Royal Palaces and the former infamous Erawan Hotel. Since then, the company has installed air-conditioning systems in most of the major monumental sites built in Bangkok during the past 30 years.

I used to think the Atlanta Hotel (near the Tobacco Monopoly and the Expressway had the first outdoor swimming pool at the outset of the 1950s (still there I believe), but I seem to remember that the Nai Lert Park claims that title too. Was it Grimm who owned the Atlanta, or some other farang?

No! Dr. Max Henn:-

http://theatlantahotel.bizland.com/

The Atlanta Hotel
Bangkok's bastion of wholesome and
culturally sensitive tourism
The Atlanta is run on conservative principles and
fosters traditional values.
The Atlanta caters to respectable families and couples
for whom there are attractive small (one bedroom) and
large (two bedroom) suites.

SEX TOURISTS ARE NOT WELCOME
78 Soi 2 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok 10110, Thailand

Tel: (+ 66-2) 252 6069 or 252 1650 Fax: (+ 66-2) 656 8123 or 656 8124

no e-mail
The Atlanta is an old-fashioned place of charm and genteel character
in downtown Bangkok
with the secluded and secure atmosphere of a private club
and the facilities of a small resort for sleaze-free and wholesome tourism.

Run on conservative principles and imperiously heedless of fashions and trends,
The Atlanta is untouched by pop culture and post-modern primitivism.
Its style and atmosphere hark back to gentler and more cultivated times.

The Atlanta is popular with cultured occidentals, with writers, academics, artists, cinema & theatre and other professional people, with dreamers and innocuous eccentrics, and their families, who can afford to stay at more expensive places but choose to stay at The Atlanta.

The Atlanta is against sex tourism.
Sex tourism is exploitative, socially damaging and culturally demeaning:
those who want to buy sex should do so in their own country.

The Atlanta has a 'zero tolerance' policy with regard to trouble-makers
and all illegal activities, including the use or possession of illicit drugs.
Such miscreants are reported to the police without advance warning,
without hesitation and without apology.
Those who object to this policy, and those who wish to spend their time in Thailand whoring, indulging in alcohol abuse, drugs or other illegal activities should stay elsewhere.

Tourism is not about going on a rampage through other people's country:
those who cannot go abroad without behaving badly should stay home.



The Atlanta's Distinctive Features

1/ The oldest unaltered hotel foyer in Thailand,
designed by Berliner Dr Max Henn (1906 - 2002) and his wife in the 1950s
and influenced by central European theatre architecture and set designs
of the 1920s and 1930s.
2/ The most photographed and filmed hotel foyer in Thailand.
3/ The first hotel swimming / diving pool in Thailand.
4/ The first children's swimming pool in Thailand.
5/ One of the oldest travel agencies in Thailand.
6/ Attractive guests' writing room with art deco roll-top desks.
7/ Large art deco light table for viewing photographic slides and negatives.
8/ Among the best swimming pool water quality in Thailand.
9/ Hammocks, deck chairs and sun-bathing beds by the swimming pools.
10/ Luxuriant tropical garden.
11/ The world's first menu with serious and learned annotations.
12/ The world's largest selection of Thai vegetarian dishes.
13/ Starred quality Thai food recommended by major guidebooks.
14/ The largest selection of literary, scientific and news magazines of any
budget hotel (perhaps of any hotel) in Thailand.
15/ The largest selection of video films relating to good food of any hotel or restaurant in Thailand.
16/ The largest selection of western-made films relating to or filmed in East Asia
17/ Well-selected Western classical music is played all day.
Absolutely no pop music.
18/ The only budget hotel in Thailand to offer the use of a gym on the premises.
19/ Probably the only budget hotel in Thailand to have
strongboxes in all bedrooms:
one per occupant, and 10- to 13-cubic-foot large strongboxes in suites.
20/ Regular performances (seasonally) of the highest quality Thai classial dance,
Thai classical chamber music and other Thai classical performing arts,
presented in The Atlanta's own inimitable style
free for room guests (outsiders not admitted - not at any price)
with the compliments of Dr C Henn who is a patron of traditional performing arts.
21/ Talks on topics related to Thailand or the region,
classical music recitals and other shows
free for room guests (outsiders not admitted - not at any price)
22/ The Atlanta is unlike most other hotels in that
outsiders (non-room guests) are not permitted to wander about at will
without prior permission from reception, and
the restaurant is not normally open to outsiders
though this rule may be waived in appropriate circumstances.
The privacy, security and sensibilities of room guests take supreme priority over
whatever gain may be made from curious passers-by or stray outsiders.
23/ Free wireless internet access for guests who have their own notebook computers;
modest charge for use of the hotel's computers.
24/ The Atlanta has incomparable character, charm, style and atmosphere.
25/ The Atlanta is recommended by all major guidebooks.


26/ The Atlanta's history, inimitable style and genteel character, and reputation
have turned it into a Bangkok institution.
The Atlanta is the bastion of wholesome and culturally sensitive tourism and is run
as a test of the viability of those principles and values that are associated with it.
The Atlanta is not run as a commercial enterprise with a view to maximising profits;
its financial aim is merely to cover costs, which explains why tariffs are so low.
The loyal staff who worked under the direction of the founder still continue to work at The Atlanta:
most have worked at The Atlanta for over 10 years,
many for over 20, and some for over 30 years.

[GWR]

DAILY XPRESS
Back to the drawing board
By Kamol Sukin
Sunday Xpress

Boffins have devised a way to reduce air-conditioning needs, and the government is considering making its use mandatory


A new simulation programme allows architects and constructors to erect buildings that can save the country millions of units of electricity a year.

Use of the programme may be required by the Energy Act as soon as early next year. The Energy Ministry is keen on this.

A research team led by Prof Suraphong Chirarattananon of the Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment developed the programme.

It simulates power consumption of building designs and suggests improvements or material use that will boost energy efficiency.

"Just input your location and other required information, and it will show how much energy will be consumed," Suraphong says.

"It's the first ever such programme developed in Thailand. It's devised for our tropical weather specifically. It can be adapted to Southeast Asian countries," he explains.

Suraphong says the unnamed programme will be integrated into the Energy Act.

This will make a "significant change" in energy consumption in new, big buildings, including condominiums, commercial towers, hotels and hospitals.

"By simply adjusting building design for energy efficiency we will be able to save more than 5 million units of electricity per year," Suraphong says.

Architects, builders and assessors will be trained to use the programme.

While the programme has been proved to work well, its designers are fine-tuning it so its display is more user-friendly. The ministry is paying for this, and it should be finished by the end of the year.

The graduate school's latest survey found buildings consumed the third greatest amount of energy, after transport and industry.

Most building energy consumption is by air-conditioners, 60 per cent in commercial buildings and 70 per cent in residential.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/05/04/headlines/headlines_30072189.php