Air conditioning in marakesh hotel

[paulandfrodo]

I hope this is the correct forum area as I did not see one dedicated to aircon or cooling.

Yes, I am holiday... But this one is bugging me.

Currently staying in a modern novotel hotel in marakesh, morocco.

The room (very nice too) has air con vents built into a 'prefab' style toilet/bathroom/wash area that takes up part of the room.

Their is an'aircon controller, three fan speeds. A heat or cool switch and a thermostat.

The use of the fan speed works. The heat/cool option seems to make no difference and turning the thermostat makes no difference. Even turning thermostat below the ambient temp of the room does not turn off the supply to the room.

As such, I think they have a whole hotel air con system and, well it's just not able to cope with the heat. Their are no air-intake vents to extract the current hot air in the room, which makes me think it's not a room specific system.

Last night it was 30 degs in the room!! This is after having the 'aircon

 

[Whitespirit66]

Have you tried ringing reception?

Failing that, nip out and buy yourself a hookah and a bit of kif.

That should help you chill, man.

 

[paulandfrodo]

Sorry, hit the wrong button and doing this via a iPhone.

Aircon had been on for over 11 hours.

Whilst I can see a little access area, I've not started poking about.

Any thoughts on the set up in hotels?

Yes, I have commented to reception who have never had a complaint (tripadvisor says different)

Yes, I am on holiday... But the brain does not stop thinking.

Yes, it's bloody hot outside... 41 degs

 

[Norcon]

Check with a few other rooms and see if the problem is specific to your room.

 

[paulandfrodo]

Yes, common issue.

 

[Agile]

Have you tried ringing reception?

Failing that, nip out and buy yourself a hookah and a bit of kif.

They seem to call them a shisha now.

If its 41 C outside and 30 C inside the A/C is probably working!

 

[Norcon]

Not a lot you can do then other than sweat it out. Think of the energy saving for the planet.
It may be an old ducted system from an air handling unit thats grossly undersized, has dirty evaporators, dirty filters or the system is lacking maintainance.

 

[Agile]

In Israel I stayed in a cheap hotel which had an evaporated water cooler as a window unit.

Nice and quiet and low power consumption!

 

[paulandfrodo]

Norcon,

So your suggesting perhaps a centrally based system with attributes of scrubbers ect relating to efficiency.

Correct, nothing can be done... Just wandering aloud how/what these systems are

A beer will help.

 

[dreadnoughtheating]

Norcon,
A beer will help.

Not if you contract Legionella..... (happened in Barrow on Furness - where I suspect 41 degrees is a little unusual...)

Ask the hotel manager for a chlorination certificate.

DH

 

[Agile]

Certificates in northern Africa?

In any case more specific biocides are normally used now in rooftop cooling plant.

My old boss caught Legionaires in the BBC Broadcasting House case where one died. He was unable to drink any alcohol for many years afterwards which for him was a severe disadvantage. None of the rest of us in the office were affected but he did drink a lot and smoke a bit. The Building Services man did a suicide.

Rather than just lowering the temperature, lowering the humidity has the greatest effect in improving comfort.

Tony

 

[Corgigrouch]

I tend to agree with Norcon, You may find that the system has been designed with the local inhabitants in mind where 30c is comfortable and our standard of 21c is incredibly cold. It is common, though not in your case that many folk will crack open the balcony french windows and still run the aircon.. In many hotels the windows will have a microswitch which will switch off the aircon if the windows are open

 

[Agile]

When I stayed in a hotel near the coast in Sri Lanka there was no A/C in our rooms. The temperature was usually about 31-33C during most of the night and fairly uncomfortable because of the high humidity.

There were ceiling fans but they were rather noisy and seemed to do little to inprove the comfort.

Nigeria was about the same temperartures at night but a little less humid most of the time.

In the Gulf we ran one window unit 24/7 to reduce the humidity which was very effective. It reduced the temperature about 8 C but the humidity to about half.

Tony

 

[RigidRaider]

My sympathy, as an export sales traveller I have suffered many nights in African hotels with inadequate or poorly controlled AC. I am so familiar with that sinking feeling as you approach the hotel and see the windows open, dirty curtains hanging limply in the sweltering air and total silence as there's no power and no gen running, a couple of bored Africans sitting listlessly behind the reception desk swatting flies. Or the hotels where you go into your room to find the AC control has been bypassed and is just running at one fan speed and the thermostat clicks but doesn't have any effect on the temperature as the valves have long since seized up.

Running the chillers is the biggest expense in hotels so with the travel industry in the state it's in at the moment I'm not surprised if those chillers have been turned down or partially off. If it's any consolation you will get acclimatised to it; spend a bit of time outdoors and the indoors will begin to feel more bearable. Also ask Management to bring you a pillar fan, set it up at the end of the bed and sleep under a sheet and you'll be comfortable. Live for the evenings and that cold beer!

Also, get them to show you a couple of rooms lower down and on the shaded side of the building, you might get lucky and find a cooler room.

Failing that, call the engineer and make friends with him, a few dollars or a small gift can work wonders; many is the time I've been at the start of a 2 week stint and I've got the bloke up to fix the system; quite often it is something as silly as stuck chiller valves in that little cupboard accessed from the corridor. In one hotel in Enugu, former Biafra, I found the engineers "load shedding" by switching the AC over to another wing of the hotel. Five dollars changed their minds and I had a cool night while a colleague in the other wing sweltered. I never did tell him what I'd done.

 

[Agile]

I am so familiar with that sinking feeling as you approach the hotel and see the windows open, dirty curtains hanging limply in the sweltering air and total silence as there's no power and no gen running, a couple of bored Africans sitting listlessly behind the reception desk swatting flies.

Are you thinking of the Hilton in Lagos?