Ordinary Gweilo

Yesterday when I was standing waiting for a minibus I was very conscious of the hot air being pumped out by a succession of KMB buses as they waited to pick up passengers, and today The Standard has a story today about the over-use of aircon that makes passengers too cold and pedestrians too hot.   

One Citybus along route 8X, dubbed the "fridge route," registered temperatures of 15.1 degrees Celsius when the outside temperature was 31.2 degrees.

I hope my fridge is colder than 15 degrees.

Roy Tam Hoi-pong, president of Green Sense which conducted the survey, warned of "air-con sickness," wherein a person is hit with cold symptoms and a headache because of the sudden change in temperature.

"When the bus is too cold, and people are constantly going from a hot to cold environment, it weakens their immune system and makes it easy to catch colds," said Dr Alvin Chan Yee-shing, a Medical Council and Hong Kong Medical Association council member.

"Patients often complain that they feel more congested, or get stuffy noses, when sitting on a bus."

So, what’s the explanation?

A spokeswoman for Citybus and New World First Bus said customer feedback and advice from the air- conditioning suppliers led to a "suitable" temperature setting in the buses.

An automatic thermostat control system also adjusted the temperatures. But because the environment inside a bus is subject to many conditions, the vehicle cannot maintain a stable temperature like inside an office, the spokeswoman said, adding the opening and closing of doors, time of day, length of journey and number of passengers all affected the inside temperature.

A KMB spokeswoman offered the same explanation, adding that if the temperature had been taken near the doors, there would have been much higher readings.

Well, yes, it would be warmer by the doors when they are open, but once they close there is usually an icy blast of cold air to lower the temperature again.  The upper deck of a bus has no doors and the windows don’t open, so surely it must be possible to keep the temperature fairly constant at around 25 degrees.

However, she said KMB air- conditioned buses are set at 23 degrees.

That’s 2.5 degrees cooler than the government’s recommendation, but obviously it’s a whole lot better than 15 or 16 degrees.