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

[Nightjar]

huge expensive trusses that can fall down?

Columns constrain how you can lay out the area and nobody knows what sort of layout might be needed a few decades from now.

Colin Bignell

[Vir Campestris]

That's an average. We reckon to fill it at 300 miles or so, and it's used 30 litres or so.

That's not even a diseasel, which ought to be better.

Andy

[Calvin]

What a load of bollox reporting. I've just go back from my trapeze class a nd I can assure you that if aerialists were doing the work they'd be much m ore interested in whether they were pointing their toes and whether one pos e looked batter than another. And the place would be full of glitter for m onths afterwards.

"High wire artists" don't do odd jobs like changing light bulbs and Cirque have got a fat little earner going in the entertainment business without br anching out into building maintenance. Maybe, just maybe, Heathrow have contracted a team who once did some work f or Cirque but I even doubt that.

[Mind you, it would be awesome to perform in a 40m high space].

[Matty F]

It's just an airport where people wander around aimlessly. No particular la yout is needed. It's not like a stadium where the columns might obscure the view of some ball game. It's not like a building here that has lots of pla nes in it, many of them hanging from the ceiling, so they have an excuse fo r having a high ceiling with no obstructions. Supermarkets have lots of columns and that's no problem. They might even al low a garden to be put on top of the roof one day!

[Nightjar]

Until somebody decides they want a lot of check-in desks in that nice open area.

You obviously haven't been in my local Tesco, where columns sprout out of the middle of aisles since they changed the layout.

Colin Bignell

[chris French]

This very much has the feeling of a story where we haven't got all the facts.

Obviously there are a variety of ways they could access these lights, they ahve decided to gwith roped access for whatever reason.

I wouldn't be surprised either to find out that the lighting was designed so that lots of the bulbs would gradually fail,and then the whole lot be replaced in one go.

[Tim Watts]

On Wednesday 27 November 2013 19:54 SteveW wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Ah yes.

When that was designed, all the teachers would have been moaning about the obvious flaws.

Meanwhile, there would have been some fools in "management" who were;

1) Wowed by the architect's flashy presentation; 2) Too out of touch and/or stupid to see the flaws; 3) A shit manager so won't listen to anyone.

And so it continues...

[Tim Watts]

On Thursday 28 November 2013 00:33 Nightjar wrote in uk.d-i-y:

That says a lot about the moron who designed the new layout!

[Tim Watts]

On Wednesday 27 November 2013 19:52 Dave Liquorice wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Sounds like they want a couple of resident electric cherry pickers...

Notice the phrase "modern buildings"!

[Chris J Dixon]

Quite!

I contacted Sainsbury's, about their misguided approach to such an obstruction.

"Ever since your most recent reorganisation of the Loughborough store, there has been a problem with a section of shelving which is now obstructed by a solid structural pillar about 60 cm square. Although the shelving practically touches the pillar, it continues to be used for various tissues.

Because you have chosen to allocate this obstructed space to small volume items, they have a correspondingly small shelf frontage, and this means that some items, when the shelves have all been dressed to the front, are actually out of sight, and any shelf-edge labels (you don't always manage to get them in) are practically unreadable. Either side of this area you stack high-volume items, with some allocated nearly a metre of shelving. If you were to bring out the hidden items, and move the larger stuff partially behind the pillar, it would still be clearly visible, and there would be nothing behind the pillar which did not have an identical visible item alongside it

I had an interesting discussion with a member of your staff, who was courteous, but insistent that this was the way it had to be done, as everything was dictated by turnover. You now have a logical problem in that you have effectively hidden the low turnover items, which are thus likely to sell even less.

I cannot believe that this is really your best solution to the situation."

They sent a bland response, and did nothing. Many months later, they actually did what I had suggested.

Now there has been another reshuffle, and a different area (pulses) seems to have drawn the short straw.

Chris

[Tony Bryer]

Hunstanton School? Horrendous building according to the teaching staff, winner of architectural awards and Listed.

[The Other Mike]

No

It wouldn't make any difference given the way the tests are now performed

No point in taking the vehicle on the road in real conditions as they are not reproducible

Might be useful to glance through these (not bang up to date))

First two on emissions, the others on consumption

Directive 70/220/EEC

Directive 98/69/EC

Directive 80/1268/EEC

Regulation (EC) No 692/2008

[whisky-dave]

That's not the manufacturers way of doing it. It was on TV last year how they get the mpg for some cars, which included removing the seats and even the brake pads.

[whisky-dave]

er clutches so they get the best figures for mpg amonst other things,

"In fact, when the MPG ratio is tested in the laboratory, nothing is left t o chance. Manufacturers have a number of ways to make sure they obtain the best results possible: turning the lights and the aircon off; disconnecting the alternator; pushing back the brake pads to reduce friction; removing e xtra trim; and only allowing one person in the car. Now they are allowed to do all this, but it?s not exactly how the rest of us drive."

[Gefreiter Krueger]

Designed? That's what bulbs do.

[The Other Mike]

It is.

Take the back seats out, take all the seats out, remove the doors, the 8 track player, the parcel shelf, the nodding dog and the ash trays and it won't make the slightest bit of difference to the MPG figures when the car remains static for the entire test.

[whisky-dave]

really what planet do you live on that has zero G ?, next thing you'll be telling me is that the number of passangers doesn't affect mpg.

[John Williamson]

Have they stopped using the "rolling road in a test chamber" method, then?

That's the method linked to upthread a bit.... They even specify the fuel to be used with rather mpore precision than the petrol companies usually manage. Of course, there are tricks used, such as making sure that the engine and transmission design and tune is optimised for the

90kph test, as that's the one everyone looks at first.

[John Williamson]

It does, however, make a difference to the acceleration figures.

[Chris J Dixon]

Just for our enlightenment, how do passengers influence performance on a rolling road?

Chris