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mikekim
Joined: 11 Aug 2006
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 Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 12:54 am Post subject: Korea: Fines for under 26C in summer, over 20C in winter |
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Koreans may face fines for keeping their homes below 26 degrees Celsius in summer or above 20 degrees Celsius in winter from 2011, according to a government announcement yesterday.
The measure is part of an energy conservation campaign that the government plans to roll out as the price of oil, which Korea buys mostly from overseas, continues to soar.
"Although Korea imports more than 90 percent of the oil it consumes, many of us are accustomed to using it wastefully at home. It is time that we addressed the issue," said Lee Jae-hoon, vice minister for energy.
The price of Dubai crude oil, Korea's benchmark, continued its rally yesterday, approaching $110 per barrel. Korea is the world's fourth-largest importer of oil and is expected to buy 215 million barrels of crude oil this year. |
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Korea Herald and Engergy minister
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xtchr
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 12:59 am Post subject: |
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I hope they enforce it like all their other laws. 
What about schools and businesses and busses/subway? Their temperatures are always way out of whack. |
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eamo
Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 1:08 am Post subject: |
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No one will ever, ever, ever, be able to get Koreans to use heaters and air-conditioners efficiently. Just forget it.
I just recently showed my Korean brother-in-law, 36 years old, driving for at least 15 years, that the temperature knob in a car can make the air-con air not so cold. He was blown away. His practice until then was to set the air-con to maximum cold then turn it completely off when the car became frigid. The on to max again when the car became hot, and so on, hot, cold, hot, cold.
Incredibly, thats also how Koreans have used air-cons and heaters in every school I've worked in.
They don't seem to know about the thermostat and what it can do...... |
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xtchr
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 1:19 am Post subject: |
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| eamo wrote: |
No one will ever, ever, ever, be able to get Koreans to use heaters and air-conditioners efficiently. Just forget it.
I just recently showed my Korean brother-in-law, 36 years old, driving for at least 15 years, that the temperature knob in a car can make the air-con air not so cold. He was blown away. His practice until then was to set the air-con to maximum cold then turn it completely off when the car became frigid. The on to max again when the car became hot, and so on, hot, cold, hot, cold.
Incredibly, thats also how Koreans have used air-cons and heaters in every school I've worked in.
They don't seem to know about the thermostat and what it can do...... |
Haha, I had the exact opposite experience in a car with a Korean driver. It was the middle of winter, (snow on the sides of the road) and of course the heat was blasting on maximum. So, every 5 mins or so when it got too hot she'd open all the windows completely until we'd freeze, she'd squeal 'ah, chuwa, chuwa', then shut the windows again. She repeated the process several times.
She was a teacher giving me a lift to a school, and it was my first time meeting her, so I just had to put up with it because she couldn't understand English and what I was on about.
I really didn't want to respond to this thread - Koreans and their lack of commonsense with regards to temperature is the one thing I find most infuriating about this country. |
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anyangoldboy
Joined: 28 Sep 2007
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 1:22 am Post subject: |
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| I remember in Japan a few years ago they wanted business or offices to have there aircon set to no lower than 28... |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 1:35 am Post subject: |
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There is no worry.
Koreans for the most part do NOT understand a thermostat.
Summer - Aircon on full blast + window open = comfort.
winter - Heaters on full + window open = comfort.
Thermal efficiency is not in their vocabulary. |
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anyangoldboy
Joined: 28 Sep 2007
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 1:38 am Post subject: |
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| Must be their sauna culture...ie hot to cold...Meant to be good for their bodies |
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flummuxt
Joined: 15 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 2:20 am Post subject: |
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What good will these rules do if they simply leave the heat cranked up near max and open the windows, which is what many seem to do?
Are Koreans claustrophobic or something? Some of them seem to be terrified of being in a room with the windows and doors closed?
I also suspect some people here simply don't know how to operate thermostats, that, or the thermostats don't work. |
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JungMin
Joined: 18 May 2005
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 2:50 am Post subject: |
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Not sure on this one, but my guess is that its from the days when everyone had coal burning heaters in their homes. Coal releases carbon monoxide when burnt, so to not suffocate everyone opened their windows in the winter to let fresh air in.
My cheap ass hakwon put me up in a old-as-*beep* country home my first year here....I had one of these coal stoves. I had to change the coal bricks 3 times a day and had to leave to windows open a hair. I didn't at first and found myself getting dizzy and headaches, but i soon cracked everything open a hair. |
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flummuxt
Joined: 15 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:16 am Post subject: |
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JungMin
| Quote: |
Not sure on this one, but my guess is that its from the days when everyone had coal burning heaters in their homes. Coal releases carbon monoxide when burnt, so to not suffocate everyone opened their windows in the winter to let fresh air in.
My cheap ass hakwon put me up in a old-as-*beep* country home my first year here....I had one of these coal stoves. I had to change the coal bricks 3 times a day and had to leave to windows open a hair. I didn't at first and found myself getting dizzy and headaches, but i soon cracked everything open a hair. |
That's been my theory, too, that they are afraid of carbon monoxide.
But whenever I ask anyone about it, all I get is a blank look. My co-teachers do not seem to have heard of carbon monoxide. And they can't explain why the students insist on opening the windows the moment my back is turned.
So I guess the habit of opening the windows or door has carried over from the old days without anyone quite understanding why. But I'm not sure. It sure would be interesting to get an explanation from a Korean.
But the other side is the thermostats. The thermostats for the new central AC in school have a digital readout for setting the temperature, but it seems to be more like on and off. At 16 degrees it is off, 17 and above seems to be on. When I set it to 17, the temperature in the room gets to 25 and I turn it off. I have seen teachers set the thermostat to 30, if you can believe that. That's about what they keep one of the teachers' offices at. |
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ajgeddes
Joined: 28 Apr 2004
Location: Yongsan
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:39 am Post subject: |
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| Well, sounds like we're safe. Only Koreans will be affected be the new rules. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:42 am Post subject: |
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| It might behoove the construction industry to discover the wonders of insulation. |
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flummuxt
Joined: 15 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:46 am Post subject: |
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OK, dumb question time.
How is the government going to enforce this?
Are they going to make surprise visits to peoples' homes and take the room temperature?
Are they going to use some sort of remote thermal sensing device, reading the infrared temp of the doors or roof or something, like they do in some places to guess whether you're growing pot in secret places?
What happens when the inspector comes into a woman's apartment and finds it is too hot? |
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bakagai4649
Joined: 23 Mar 2008
Location: Dongducheon
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 4:08 am Post subject: |
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| I say it is a related offshoot of fan death |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 4:43 am Post subject: |
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| flummuxt wrote: |
OK, dumb question time.
How is the government going to enforce this?
Are they going to make surprise visits to peoples' homes and take the room temperature?
Are they going to use some sort of remote thermal sensing device, reading the infrared temp of the doors or roof or something, like they do in some places to guess whether you're growing pot in secret places?
What happens when the inspector comes into a woman's apartment and finds it is too hot? |
That's my question, too.. how will they know?! |
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