Cynthia's Blog

While in Ireland I have noticed differences in construction fire regulations. For example, I have yet to see a sprinkler head at the college, in any hotel room, restaurant or bar. I’ve also noticed that in every hotel room, even in a tiny B&B, each room door has an automatic closer. I stayed at a lavish new hotel in Dublin (those on-line deals are a wonderful thing). We had to use our card key to operate the elevator. One morning I was on the elevator by myself and my key did not work. I was travelling up and down on the elevator because it was being activated by people waiting for the elevator. It would not stop at my floor. So I got off on the 4th floor and planned to walk up to the 5th. When I reached the 5th floor the stairwell door was locked and a sign indicated that it was locked because it is a fire door. I could get into the stairwell but to exit it I had to go to the ground floor and outdoors. I went back into the lobby and it was obvious that having tourists run outdoors to get back into the lobby was a common occurrence. They laughed and said, “Irish fire regulations are different than most”. I said, “So, I can’t walk up to my room?” “That’s right”, she said. Oh well, I now have another excuse to not exercise. I can’t take the stairs. I’ll just have another one of those big Irish breakfasts.

Upon completing this blog, I thought I should speak with the architects here at IT Carlow because being locked in a stairwell did not seem like a logical fire code requirement... and it is not. The hotel locked the doors exiting the stairwell to each of the floors for the same reason we needed a card key to activate the elevator. It is a security measure. I believe that the front desk clerks did not know the difference and that they were told to tell tourists that the exit requirements were due to Irish fire regulations.

While here in Ireland and our students are working on a project to reduce energy consumption in low income housing using passive means. I think the Irish have it right. One of the most obvious ways to reduce the cost for heating is by reducing the set point temperature. Our parents and grandparents understood that too. Turn down the temperature and put on a sweater unless you are in Ireland and then you would put on a jumper.

Cynthia Rogers
Mechanical Engineering Technology Faculty
Waterfront Campus