Hot air

A week or so ago to the Royal Institution to hear about the physics of hot air but where I actually got to hear about breathing buildings (reference 1). I suppose if I had checked the CV of the speaker, Shaun Fitzgerald, before I booked, I could have worked that out. As it turned out, not a bad talk despite the poor delivery, much too fast for me.

Started out well, as when I reached the window at Epsom Station to buy my ticket, there was an anxious lady, about my age, very concerned to pay the proper excess fare. There are still some honest people about.

And then, on the train, there was a young man who was careful to carry his litter off to the litter bin provided. Eating on the train bad, clearing up his rubbish good.

Three more young men by the doors in low grade fancy dress, presumably off to some beano or other. I guessed medicos, who as a class seem to be keen on fancy dress, but was wrong. But they seemed quite flattered that I thought that they were.

Irritating train dispatcher on the platform at Green Park. One of those young men who like the sound of their own voice, of which we heard far too much. A downside of giving them direct access to the loudspeakers.

Quick visit to the Goat to snap their floor (reference 2) and take a drop of Quickie, then onto the Institution to find thrones set out for the Duke of Kent and his lady in waiting (if that is the right term). Plus three young ladies, two minding the door and one minding the doctor, that is to say Fitzgerald. One of those minding the door was dressed in an ordinary, sober way, while the other sported a summer frock and very nice she looked too. While the one minding the doctor sported a blue dress which was both short and tight and some very high heels. Perhaps not terribly practical for attending to the doctor's toys but that was hardly the point...

Fitzgerald started off by telling us about the huge amount of energy consumed by modern buildings, a significant contribution to global warming. With a good slice of this going on the fans needed to keep the air moving about and in reasonable condition.

And the story seemed to be that you could do a lot to get this down if you paid attention to ventilation at the design stage. To which end he appeared to have acted as consultant to all the fancy architects that one might have heard of. Big picture: cold air in at the bottom and hot air out of the chimneys. Complication: hot air can go out of and cold air can come into the same chimney at the same time.

I imagine that computing all this would be difficult, so what they did instead was make see through plastic models of buildings and immerse them in large tanks of water. Inject coloured jets of water in at the bottom and see what happens. It seems that the behaviour of the water inside these models gives one a pretty good idea of what might happen in the real building. All this being the toys mentioned above.

At some point we had a diversion to the builders of the nineteenth century. A time when there were big buildings but no big fans, so builders had to think about natural ventilation. One exhibit was a proposal for the ventilation of the House of Commons - part of one of a number of proposals to rebuild the House - one which was not, in the event, selected. Unlike much of the last century, when energy was so cheap that there was no need to bother with that sort of thing.

The low tech wheeze of letting buildings cool during the night was part of many solutions (although this one did not work in very humid climates, where nights are warm). The high tech wheeze of having fancy control systems for the vents and baffles in buildings was another. The psychological wheeze of giving the people in the building some sense of control was another: people like to be able to open the windows - even though this might do dreadful things to the airflow in the building as a whole. People with a bit of control were a lot more tolerant of the inevitable highs and lows.

I did not think to ask about the contribution made to global warming by all his smart ventilation wheezes - being mindful here of another graphic which told me about the huge amount of energy consumed by cement factories. But I dare say he would have had that one covered.

Picked up three magazines at Raynes Park on the way home. A copy of 'The Lady' for BH: a slightly dowdy women's magazine with a fair bit on cooking. A copy of some glossy magazine which was something to do with Canary Wharf was another. Women's fashions. Property. Other fancy goods and services for men, including a state of the art cigar lounge in some fancy hotel. Coincidentally, I read the next day that the Ritz was reinstating such a thing. One of the odd exemptions in the otherwise rather draconian anti-smoking legislation: got to let rich foreigners and home-grown poshers have a drag indoors. Women's fashions. Property. A copy of the May number of 'Rhapsody of Realities' from Pastor Chris, from Nigeria. Featuring a short programme of prayer and other religious stuff for each day of the month. That for the first of the month was strong on the power of the Lord to keep voodoo priests, sorcerers, witch doctors and diviners at bay. Only believe and none of the bad guys will be able to touch you. A booklet which is, apparently, distributed by the million.

Bing knows all about Pastor Chris, as does Wikipedia. As well as being very holy it seems that he is also very rich. See references 3, 4, 5  and 6.

PS: the snap is of the substantial stretch of brick wall which is the north eastern side of the Sainsbury's building in Kiln Lane. On the right as you face the building. Noticed shortly after the hot air talk for appearing to have no holes for ventilation at all. The trolley just about visible if you click to enlarge at the end of the wall was not scored as it was in range of the Sainsbury's cameras if not actually on Sainsbury's ground.

Reference 1: https://www.breathingbuildings.com/.

Reference 2: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/06/fake-36.html.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Oyakhilome.

Reference 4: https://www.pastorchrisonline.org/.

Reference 5: yookos. [According to Wikipedia: 'Yookos is an online social networking site founded in 2011 by the leader of Christ Embassy International. It was initially used by church members, but later the site was expanded to allow public access. Yookos currently has around 10 million registered users worldwide. The site receives more than half of its traffic from Nigeria and the remaining user base is from Zimbabwe, South Africa, the UK and the US. In January 2013, Yookos partnered with Adfu to increase its market reach and push revenue earnings. This collaboration makes Yookos available across Africa with Adfu as exclusive advertising sales agent. ad-ops team. Yookos ranks number 5 among the top 10 social networking sites in Africa according to the Pan African Chamber of Commerce'. But I can't find it]

Reference 6: https://buzznigeria.com/pastor-chris-oyakhilome/.