Opening of windows when it's warm at the office

@Lorelei: Laut Definition bedeutet Zugluft: Windgeschwindigkeiten von mehr als 0,1 m/s.


!!!
Does anyone know where to get one of those wind-speed measurement device?
I'll stick one of those to the windows, and if wind speed drops below 0,1m/s, I'll open it up. Or maybe the Germans can fix a wind-speed filter to all windows or something. They are good at mechanical systems, aren't they?

Just seen this thread. I thought I was alone! I've been having a 'Fenster-Krieg' for the last two years or so.

All I hear is 'es zieht' and when I asked what they really mean by that ie. is it cold (with 30°C outside?) or what is the problem, all they could answer is 'nein, es zieht'. And this from a bunch of girls wearing t-shirts that don't quite meet the trousers...

@Boba: my face is burning up.
I think i'll open it when that Big Bavarian is not around, and close it again whenever he comes back.

What are you doing about the heat?

@ Why8. We've got a fan on our desk for two of us but all it's doing is blowing warm air at us, drying the contacts out too. And no air con.

A couple of years back they banned the guys wearing shorts on casual Fridays, alright for the girls to keep wearing them, though...

Another German just opened the window -- Hallelujah!!!

Everything is blowing in the "draft" but at least it's fresh air... I almost suffocated!!!
I just asked a doctor about this, and he said there's no truth in it...

Don't know if you get ill from a draft, but you can really get a sore head and stiff muscles.

Hot one today. The window's open and staying open. Believe it or not someone has just asked if it could be closed to stop the hot air coming in...

Yup a hot one today. Aircon went on at 8:30 despite some protests

us too! And its nice an coolish to work, but still get patients complaining about the aircon- they are all going to die from viruses- I laugh and say, now, we had it cleaned out, not a virus to be had.

My colleague who always insists on having the window open was telling me that she is leaving at 10:30 and could we wait to put the AC on until then (because she has high blood pressure and the switch from AC to the outdoor air really screws things up - do you think maybe SMOKING a pack of cigaretts everyday screws things up!?). Anyway, next colleage walks in the door and says 'Shit, it's a hot one, let's turn on the AC' and I said 'No problem'. In the next room, the boys are sweating it out at 29C (at 10 am) because one of the colleagues says his arms get cold. The rest just roll their eyes.

Stupid Germans!

maybe he should bring a sweater! We have one room here that is colder than the other rooms, we had guys look at the vents, but they cannot understand why, so, we have a nice thick blanket for the patients to cover up with.

I don't get this at all either. For one, how can offices not have A/C?! This is the first company I've ever worked for that doesn't have A/C. Its so brutal here by the afternoon, the last thing I can think about doing is work. But anyway, I don't understand this whole draft thing either. I love having a cool wind on me at night when I go to bed so all the windows stay open at my place. One guy I work with had a wall put up behind his desk because when someone opens the window he gets this wind and doesn't want to get sick. I would happily switch desks so I could get this nice fresh air!

This behavior transfers to the car as well. I have to drive with the windows down, the air flowing freely through the car on these beautiful summer days. When Germans have ridden with me they immediately role up the window and complain that I will make them sick with this wind blowing through the car. How you can get sick from fresh air is beyond me. In any case, I keep my window down and occasionally stick my head out the window while telling them "I'm making me sick, I'm making me sick"

I am massively anti A/C...always systematically switching the things off here... I wouldn't mind an open window at all, but since working here (2.8 yrs) I have had more colds and viruses than ever before (big open plan office, old building...windows painted shut..A/C on all the time). It dries out my eyes and throat too...just horrible. Am hot outside but freezing inside to the point that my fingernails turn blue. I love open windows though and can't see that providing enough of a draft to cause any kind of problem (unless the office is travelling at 200km an hour...which would be odd).

A very German whinge... Some of the people in the gym even complain if a window behind the running machines is opened. I honestly don't know how they run indoors anyway, but this begs the question how did Germans survive before we could keep fit indoors?

The open window is the best solution when it works, but it's not much use when it's 34C outside... And the complaints in your post does sound 'more German than the Germans'.


All air conditioners should have filters to stop this sort of stuff, a good one should help clean the air. It's probably the open plan office and contact with all those wonderful colleagues which you'll get with or without A/C that sends those germs to you. I've no experience with dry eyes or contacts but if you feel dehydrated then drink water. Yes, it's that easy.


Do more exercise, cycle to work, get your circulation moving and you should be much warmer. Edit: I noticed you're in London. Forget cycling to work, sorry, dumb idea...

Sorry this sounds like the HellesAngel guide to living with other people but I've been stuck in an office with someone who would appear to be like you and it was murder (very nearly literally). Above 10C I start suffering from the heat, and anything that reduces the temperature is my friend.

I didn't read the whole 4 pages, but here's a solution:

I worked in an office for years with just an open window even in the heat of summer and with the shutters down and window open I always had a lovely breeze coming in. This of course does depend on the location of the office etc. but for me it has always been sufficient.


drinking water does not help my dried out eyes nor throat as it's they dryness of the air and not the fact that I'm dehydrated.


I do exercise etc. but that doesnt change the fact that the office is bloody freezing and I don't see why I should need to sit in an office with my fingers going numb and chattering teeth.


it sounds a bit smart-arse, if that's what you mean. Yes. I have also had enough of people with high blood pressure or something needing the room temperature to be at 15degrees.

Sometimes I think companies deliberately create conflict by putting people who are fundamentally different together in offices. It's something like a corporate Big Brother experiment, I just wonder how they observe the experiment and catalogue the results. Here our 2-3 person offices are divided up so all 'teams' sit together, which doesn't really make sense as we have to work closely with other 'teams' as well as each other, and despite having email, phones, the internet and even legs apparently we can only communicate when sitting close by (but still in different offices). It would be far better to group by preferred office environment, but apparently that's not how offices work. How would I know? I've only sat in one for ten years...

No complaints here - we agree on the office temperature, opening windows, the AC, and even on which internet alternative rock radio station we play out loud all day long every day, but then no Germans in the room. Currently XRM Radio, later Wazee, window open for fresh air, AC on for cool breeze (oh the decadence)

I object strongly to the casual use of the term 'kraut' when referring to Germans. What is wrong with 'Hun', 'Boche', 'Squarehead' and 'Nazi'?

tell me about it... in that heat wave in May, we could't open the windows in the Aerobics room, as one the the old bitties would fall over and die of the flu (so she insisted) but it was so hot in there with 14 women doing aerobics that I almost fell over from 'kreislauf' was just too fucking hot in there. And no air circulation... so 14 of us had to suffer because on WACKO!

Excuse me...

Please don't tell me you didn't understand the point I was trying to make?

Oops, I think osmachar is German...

Is there no such thing as majority rules in Germany or is s/he who is loudest wins?

thats true pretty well everywhere... Welcome to modern life.

Yes, I am, but all sorted...

No offence taken.

Just feeling grumpy because it is raining here AGAIn and I'm sitting in the office in a weooly cardigan and feeling more like hybernating than July.

Came to work today and asked my kraut colleagues what I can do lower the temperature in our corner.
One suggested the same as Boba's colleague above: close all the windows to keep the hot air out. Goodness!!! Or is he right???

Another nicer kraut suggested short pants (will bring a pair to work tomorrow and change in the office -- I still refuse to expose my sexy legs in the public transport), ice cream or ice coffee.

Dying here, I think I will go buy a big fan after all...!!!

If it is hotter out than in, then err... of course he is right.

Okay, outside in the sun is almost always hotter than inside in the shade.
But for him to be right, it's required that the moving air will transport the heat from outside to inside, rather than transport heat from inside away to somewhere cooler... something like that.

Where are all the TT scientists??? They always have an answer for this kind of thermodynamics questions...

Well I think you just have to look at the little structure called the green house to understand that he is wrong (of course it depends on the building design, but ours is mostly glass). I mean its definitely cooler outside than my office. At least with the windows open you get some air circulating around the room and have a chance at feeling a cool breeze from time to time.

I said screw it all and wore shorts today despite company dress code... if they don't like it they can buy a freakin A/C unit.

All that said... I'm still happy its finally hot here in Munich. Bring it on!!! HEAT!!!

I took my tie off

Like I said, if it's cooler inside than outside, then opening windows = bad. In our apartment this is always the case.

If it is hotter in than out, then yes, open them to let the heat out.

The heat will not freely migrate from a cooler place (even if it does seem hot) to a hotter place (and I reckon we'll crack this rule some day soon). There will be a small amount of heat transfer even without moving air.

Oooh,, c-c-c-old in my office. Brrrrrr.

Meanwhile, the boys in the next office are sitting in a sauna...a stinky sauna.

I think you have a problem that's got nuffin to do with the weather. Go find another job!