Appeal for a Sane Air-Conditioning

My thermometer reads: 20 degrees Celsius.

The wind howls. Who knows how fast? I wonder what is the wind chill factor like.

Most of the people around me wear jackets.

No, I’m not on holiday in the mountains around Chiangrai. I’m still in the tropics, about 5 degrees north of the equator, and I’m quite sure I’m not too far from sea level. Yes, I’m still in Kuala Lumpur.

In fact, I was in class.

It was absurd. Some people seem to be driven by the thought that more is always good, so the air-con was set to the lowest temperature and highest fan speed. Always. Mercifully, it never seemed to be able to reach 16 degrees which is the lowest possible setting for most air conditioners. I’m not joking, and I have two thermometers to do the measurements: one digital and one dyed alcohol.

I do not understand this obsessive behaviour. Some just dismiss it “kiasu” and leave it at that, but I’m more inclined to believe that in has something to do with the fact that the person who made the adjustments either do not have to stay in class or at least get to walk back and forth in class (not just for warm-up, but also to dodge the blast of Antarctic chill).

I once had a chemistry teacher who does this all the time. It was routine for her to tune down the air-con when she comes in for class; as it was routine for me to turn it back up when she leaves, if I happened to be using the same class afterwards. She claims that the cold would keep us awake and alert. Personally, I have only been able to achieve this by (in one extreme case) wearing the same amount of gear I wore in a late-autumn Wollongong (Australia) plus a thermos filled with hot tea. Minus the gloves of course. The rest of the time, I either shiver and hope that I don’t shake my teeth off its sockets (of course, what the lecturer has to say would be the least of my concerns), or get by with a jacket like everyone else.

Absurd! Absolutely absurd!

Why should jackets even exist in the tropics, other than in the mountains and in the travel shops? Why is this extra waste of energy necessary?

I will never know.

For the record, the air-con in my room is set to 28 degrees and the lowest fan speed. At my home in Kulim, I don’t even need the air-con. The tall ceiling and many windows ensure adequate air flow throughout the building. Being in a relatively undeveloped area full of green helps. Heck, I don’t always use the fan either.

Can we have a sane air-con setting please? I intend to keep my teeth and concentrate in class.

Antarctica Kuala Lumpur