[OT] Heathrow hires high-wire team to change ... light bulbs

[Tim Watts]

Oops - someone did not really think that through at the design stage!

[GB]

That's odd. A scissors platform sounds perfect for the job, or is it much higher than it looks?

[Bill Wright]

"The current lighting on the Terminal 5 concourse is being replaced with environmentally friendly LED bulbs" So all the people waiting to board the most environmentally damaging form of transport known to man will be happy in the knowledge that the airport's light bulbs that shine down on them are 'environmentally friendly'. What a load of arse. Anyone genuinely bothered about CO2 etc wouldn't fly.

Bill

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Are you absolutely sure about that? Per passenger mile on a modern full aircraft?

[chris French]

But given that the airport is going to be there I'd rather the building used energy as efficiently as possible.

Anyway, they are probably fitting LED becuase of lower running costs and reduced maintenance costs - or in this case having lights that stay alight :-)

[chris French]

As ever these stories seem incomplete, AIUI it's not that they can't change them, but H&S conserns.

I assume there are issues with the building being used 24/7, lots of staff/public around, the height of the lamps, the machinery needed, the amount of space you might need to cordon off etc. Dunno, but it's got to be somethign to do with that sort of thing.

[John Rumm]

Then they will replace them with LEDs and work out that they are too dim, and do the whole exercise again ;-)

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

Would it have been impractical to design the bars the lights are on so they could be lowered as happens in theatres?

[Tim Watts]

On Monday 25 November 2013 14:52 Jeremy Nicoll - news posts wrote in uk.d-i- y:

Or incorporate a series of arty walking gantries into the design - and hang the lights off those.

Oh - that would involve architects thinking - I forgot, silly me...

[charles]

Architects don't concern themselves with details.

I have a proposal (based on working in ba=rand new buildings) that members of that profession should be compelled to live or work, as appropriate, for at least 6 months in any building they have designed.

[Brian Gaff]

Well, one would have thought that the original design would have included the mounting hardware for a gondola system. I'm sure this was done in many arenas with high cieling fitted lighting for goodness sake. What a bunch of idiots the planning aceptance mob must have been.

Brian

[Nightjar]

You do have to look only at first class passengers on a long haul flight to justify the claim. According to DEFRA, those passengers are responsible for 322.3 gms of CO2 equivalent pre passenger kilometre (gCO2/pkm).

The averages for aircraft are: Short Haul flights 95.9 gCO2/pkm Long Haul flights 110.4 gCO2/pkm. Domestic flights 163.1 gCO2/pkm

For comparison, some other figures are: London Underground 73.6 gCO2/pkm Local London bus 86.3 gCO2/pkm Tyne & Wear Metro 103.6 gCO2/pkm Hybrid cars average 139.0 gCO2/pkm Local bus (outside London) 185.9 gCO2/pkm

Electric cars, charged from the mains: France 12 gCO2/km UK 75 gCO2/km China 115 gCO2/km Note this is per car km, not per passenger km

Colin Bignell

[fred]

In article , charles writes

Looking at the design, it is quite possible that it was designed with maintenance in mind. There appears to be a continuous round tube above the light fittings and it may have been intended to run a captive bogey over that as a rail to maintain the lights.

I'd expect the truth of the matter is that that rail will be used to suspend a mobile working platform.

The high-wire headline being bullshit of course as they admit in the body of the story that it is simply roped access.

[dennis]

That would be a bit less than a half empty train and a lot less than an electric car and far far less than a cruise ship.

[harryagain]

Electric car charged from solar panels, 0g CO2/km

[The Natural Philosopher]

exactly. you should try walking a track that's been used by horses. My god they make a muddy mess of anything. Worse than 4x4s.

[dennis]

Rubbish.. they have already produced several tons of CO2 before you buy one.

[Nightjar]

According to the IPCC in 2011, solar PV panels produce, on average, 46 gCO2/kWhe. A 2008 study showed a range of 53-217 g CO2/kWh. That is compared to 16g CO2/kWh for a nuclear power plant. Hence an electric car charged from solar panels is likely to be quite a bit worse than the French electric car.

Colin Bignell

[Nightjar]

That is generally reckoned to be about 70 gCO2e/km over the lifetime of an electric car but, to be fair, none of the figures I gave included the manufacturing load.

Colin Bignell

[Weatherlawyer]

Acceptance is the key. I doubt they would have designed it to be unserviceable. Only the idiots it was designed for probably thought they could get people to do it a lot cheaper. Maybe the gang that remodelled Windsor Castle.