Mocamps, good subject & a never ending nightmare for both pax and the crew trying to get everybody comfy.
A few things to add to the good points already made by
Bealzebub and
Lancelot37.
I fly as Chief Wagon Dragon on the B747, the B777 and the A330, and on all 3 Iīm the one who sets the temperature. Not the word "set" rather than "control".
From experience, I know what temp pax will generally find most comfy on various routes, so try to achieve that for them by setting that particular temperature in all the zones. So youīd think that in a hight tech environment like an airplane that would be a simple thing, right? Well it isnīt!
Say I set the temp for the entire cabin to 22C. Wait a while to let it do its thing and then walk from the front to the back to check.
Uniform temp no way! There will be hot spikes and seat rows that are icy cold traps. The hot spikes and cold traps will in no way at all relate to the heating system zone divisions so I will have no chance in hell to even things out. If I try to make the hot zones cooler, the pax in the cold zones will start to chatter their teeth, and the other way around. Itīs an all-flight balancing act, fine tuning it continuously with the elusive goal of achieving some uniform level of pax comfort.
Itīs a no win situation for everybody, and actually worse on the newer type aircraft than it is on the 747.
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As for hiking up the temps for CC sitting by the doors; thatīs a new one.
In our mob, we only sit by the doors at night on the Airbus, and we have separate door area heaters to keep the arctic freeze away. On the other types, we either sit in the galleys and put our uniform sweaters on, or are in our bunks which again are separately heated.
The only time temps
might get adjusted for CC comfort is during the hot meal service, when they are physically exerting themselves and anything above say 22C will make them sweat like draft horses in the aisles.
When traveling as a pax myself, I go for layered clothing from thin T to fleece sweater and carry an extra blanket and warm socks just in case.
Cabin heating is definitely the orphan child of aircraft design and its poor results are frustrating to you pax and us crew alike.
We want to make you comfy, but it is an uphill struggle.