It's Getting Colder

If you live in the UK, you will have probably noticed that the weather's getting colder. I've been reliably informed that one morning last week it was -4C (24.8F) near where I work. The coldest I saw that morning was -2.5C (27.5F). Nevertheless, pretty damned cold I'm sure you'll agree.

At work, my office is quite cold too. So cold that I often have to turn the air conditioning on. This is also true for my colleagues. The only downside with the controllers we have in our office is that they only have an on switch. There's no off switch. If you switch the air conditioning on in the morning, it stays on until lunchtime. If you turn it on after lunch, it stays on until sometime in the evening. It's not possible to turn it off manually.

Imagine my glee when I was informed that the controller units were going to be replaced. Mine was replaced over the weekend, so now I'm trying to figure out how to use it.

The dial is obviously something to do with temperature control (if the little thermometer picture is to be believed). There's no numbers on it so all I'm able to deduce is that it's allowing me to set the temperature to an undefined value plus-or-minus an undefined amount.

The grey buttons allow me to move the yellow light between the symbol on the left and "Auto". What does that achieve? I have no idea. I'm guessing that auto means it maintains the selected temperature. What does the other symbol mean? On? Off? It's not obvious.

It would be easier to figure out how to use this controller if any of the controls actually made the air conditioning come on. Maybe it's a cost cutting exercise. Maybe whatever we do, the air conditioning is supposed to stay off.

I'll keep you posted, if I don't freeze to death first.

UPDATE

The air conditioning is now on! About 10 minutes after moving the light to "auto", the air conditioning burst into life. It's now blowing cool air into the office, even though what I assume is the temperature dial is on maximum. Switching from "auto" to the other symbol turns it off, so I guess that's the "off" setting we didn't have before. Switching it back to "auto" switches it back on after a few minutes.

ANOTHER UPDATE

I was just talking about the air conditioning with one of my colleagues. He made an interesting observation. If the light is on "auto", where should it go if you press the right arrow? What actually happens is nothing. We think it should either "rotate around" to the "off" position or, for a more interesting behaviour, should go to the controller in next door's office. The same is true for the left arrow. In this way you can move your light up and down the corridor.