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crescent
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Location: yes.
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 Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:35 pm Post subject: |
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Absolutely not.. Korean buildings (construction, glues, and finishings) have a well known reputation for incorporating a dangerous degree of low cost toxic chemicals that poisoned the interior. Until recently, there has been enough discoveries and backlash that construction companies have been using safer materials, but are still not always forced to do so.
Add to that, when you have a building with no ventilation and high moisture, as concrete buildings have, you get mold. Leave all your windows closed for a month and see what happens. |
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ontheway
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Location: Somewhere under the rainbow...
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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| crescent wrote: |
^
Absolutely not.. Korean buildings (construction, glues, and finishings) have a well known reputation for incorporating a dangerous degree of low cost toxic chemicals that poisoned the interior. Until recently, there has been enough discoveries and backlash that construction companies have been using safer materials, but are still not always forced to do so.
Add to that, when you have a building with no ventilation and high moisture, as concrete buildings have, you get mold. Leave all your windows closed for a month and see what happens. |
I never open my windows here. I have no mold whatsoever in a concrete building. I use heat and A/C seasonally to keep the unit dry. The offgassing of materials was completed long ago. (Sure, if you're in a recently completed unit, you will need some air exchange for some months, but better not to exchange the bad dirty outside air for your bad dirty inside air. The outside air is filled with pollutants daily. They burn dirty coal, dirty charcoal and dirty oil in Korea everywhere. The black soot coats the merchandise for sale and the vendors can't keep up with it.
If you hang your clothes outside to dry, they will have little black spots of soot all over them. Even if you can't see them, if you rinse the clean clothes after drying and test the water, it will be filled with gray soot.
If you maintain your buildings, housing and schools properly in Korea, the inside air will be much cleaner than the outside air. |
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methdxman
Joined: 14 Sep 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Biggest mystery is how some of you even got into a 4 year university. This stuff is jr. college worthy. |
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nukeday
Joined: 13 May 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 3:56 pm Post subject: |
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| methdxman wrote: |
| Biggest mystery is how some of you even got into a 4 year university. This stuff is jr. college worthy. |
???
Did you major in Air Conditioner Studies? Illustrious program, I know, but I wasn't accepted into the department. |
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eamo
Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 4:09 pm Post subject: |
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Regular as clockwork, twice per year, in Summer when the A/C gets switched on and in late Autumn when the heaters get turned on, people post on here about the strange ways Koreans have with heaters and aircons.
It never seems to stop baffling foreigners.
I believe a lot of this 'bad air' perception comes from the pre-modernization days when Koreans used actual fire under their floors to stay warm in Winter. Carbon monoxide poisoning used to be a big problem.......so throwing open the windows became just something passed down through the generations as something you should do......the modern twist being that you need to do it for air-con's too!
In actuality, air-con's improve the air by filtering the dust if on long enough. Opening the windows just lets a lot of dust back into the room.
I just think Koreans have an innate suspicion of any machine that changes the condition of the air. Fans, heaters, air-cons.....they don't trust any of them!! |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 4:17 pm Post subject: |
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| nukeday wrote: |
| methdxman wrote: |
| Biggest mystery is how some of you even got into a 4 year university. This stuff is jr. college worthy. |
???
Did you major in Air Conditioner Studies? Illustrious program, I know, but I wasn't accepted into the department. |
Asking why you wouldn't open the window is kind of a ridiculous question when you're talking about something that cools the air. |
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nukeday
Joined: 13 May 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 4:22 pm Post subject: |
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| northway wrote: |
| nukeday wrote: |
| methdxman wrote: |
| Biggest mystery is how some of you even got into a 4 year university. This stuff is jr. college worthy. |
???
Did you major in Air Conditioner Studies? Illustrious program, I know, but I wasn't accepted into the department. |
Asking why you wouldn't open the window is kind of a ridiculous question when you're talking about something that cools the air. |
Are people asking why they wouldn't open the window or are they asking (and conjecturing) why Koreans sometimes do? I only saw one person ask personally...not really worth the ole "Everyone on Dave's is an idiot except me" line.
Anyway, I got the usual query from my coteacher today. "Hey nukeday, what do you call the feeling when you become sick from the air conditioning being on? We call it something like 'air conditioning disease.'" I simply told her that I was unaware of any term in English and that feeling sick from Air conditioning probably means the unit needs to be cleaned out. |
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crescent
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Location: yes.
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 5:01 pm Post subject: |
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| ontheway wrote: |
I never open my windows here. I have no mold whatsoever in a concrete building. I use heat and A/C seasonally to keep the unit dry. The offgassing of materials was completed long ago. (Sure, if you're in a recently completed unit, you will need some air exchange for some months, but better not to exchange the bad dirty outside air for your bad dirty inside air. The outside air is filled with pollutants daily. They burn dirty coal, dirty charcoal and dirty oil in Korea everywhere. The black soot coats the merchandise for sale and the vendors can't keep up with it.
If you hang your clothes outside to dry, they will have little black spots of soot all over them. Even if you can't see them, if you rinse the clean clothes after drying and test the water, it will be filled with gray soot.
If you maintain your buildings, housing and schools properly in Korea, the inside air will be much cleaner than the outside air. |
That may be true for you but it is not the norm. If your building is very new, on a higher floor, or receives a lot of light you can avoid the mold issue.
When I first came to Korea I worked on a design team in an engineering firm and I noticed within a few years of my arrival (can't remember exactly when) that the news was full of evidence to the contrary. It was of particular interest to me because of my field. Even today there are continuingng stories of builders skirting regulations.
I suppose Seoul or Busan would have higher concentrations of particulates in the air, but I don't have that problem in Daegu. |
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young_clinton
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 5:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Blowing the hot air out sounds reasonable also if the school is dusty it blows that out as well. |
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Chokse
Joined: 22 May 2009
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 5:29 pm Post subject: |
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Nthan:
Semantics. Remove heat, remove hot air.... it's the same thing. The point is that by opening the window you are not allowing the AC to remove heat/remove hot air efficiently since you are introducing more heat/hot air for it to remove. It can never catch up and will keep running at full force, thus increasing your electric bill and never keeping the room "cold".
And, central AC units (should there really be any other kind?) DO bring in fresh air from outside. The recycle air as well, but they do bring in fresh air as well, otherwise, everyone would get sore throats and such. Your car does this too, though it is manually operated via the switch on the dash, and newer passenger airplanes like the Boeing 777 do as well. This is why you feel more comfortable on a 777 than you would on an older 747.
Maybe Korean AC units don't bring in fresh air and maybe that's because Korean buildings are not insulated or sealed/built very well and enough fresh air just leaks in. |
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Zyzyfer
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: who, what, where, when, why, how?
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 5:47 pm Post subject: |
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| nukeday wrote: |
| Anyway, I got the usual query from my coteacher today. "Hey nukeday, what do you call the feeling when you become sick from the air conditioning being on? We call it something like 'air conditioning disease.'" I simply told her that I was unaware of any term in English and that feeling sick from Air conditioning probably means the unit needs to be cleaned out. |
It falls under the blanket "sick building syndrome."
Also if you Google "air conditioning sickness" it's more prevalent of a concern than people may first think. |
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kenglish
Joined: 10 Mar 2011
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 5:47 pm Post subject: |
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um, fresh oxygen, maybe? though it may feel fresh, closed space for hours at a time is still dead air. can you imagine two dozen students fuming co2 with the windows closed for hours at a time in a comfortable room temp during spring? it'd still be suffocating. no different with the air conditioner on.  |
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nukeday
Joined: 13 May 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 5:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Zyzyfer wrote: |
| nukeday wrote: |
| Anyway, I got the usual query from my coteacher today. "Hey nukeday, what do you call the feeling when you become sick from the air conditioning being on? We call it something like 'air conditioning disease.'" I simply told her that I was unaware of any term in English and that feeling sick from Air conditioning probably means the unit needs to be cleaned out. |
It falls under the blanket "sick building syndrome."
Also if you Google "air conditioning sickness" it's more prevalent of a concern than people may first think. |
I googled it. Almost all the results are from Asia or are Asia-related.
There must be a disproportionate number of "sick buildings" here, hence people talking about it so much. |
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Zyzyfer
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: who, what, where, when, why, how?
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 6:04 pm Post subject: |
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Not using quotes (if you did) might make a difference. But looking at some of the linked pages, I don't see an especially strong Asian connection.
Even then, it's not some goofy Korean thing that only Koreans believe, like fan death. And I don't advocate believing in air conditioning sickness personally, unless maybe the filters need changing. |
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fermentation
Joined: 22 Jun 2009
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| Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 12:19 am Post subject: |
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| The biggest reason I've got is to get fresh air from the outside because the AC blows out dirty air or something. But most people should know that their room isn't going to be as cool if you open the windows on a hot summer day. It's been a while I've lived with old out of touch Koreans with airconditioning. I live with young Koreans with no AC in our buildings. |
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