5 ms·
Decreasing the AC doesn't mean people will start sweating themselves. 75 - 78 F is perfect but most buildings for some reason turn their ACs all the way down to
by eBombzor 9y ago
Decreasing the AC doesn't mean people will start sweating themselves. 75 - 78 F is perfect but most buildings for some reason turn their ACs all the way down to the 60s.
For athletic centers, of course it makes sense. But in big open libraries, lecture halls, places with little activity in general, it's awful. It's especially bad for your health if you live in a hot region like southern California since your body has to keep adjusting between the scorching heat outside to the freezing cold inside.
- PhasmaFelis 9y ago> 75 - 78 F is perfect Like hell it is. I sweat like a pig at 78.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- isolli 9y agoBecause you're not used to it. Which is part of the problem: change is hard.
- dba7dba 9y agoEven though I live in very warm/mild weather area, I ALWAYS try to keep a jacket handy if I know I will be going into an enclosed place to be sitting still, like theaters, restaurant, etc. It's really silly that we have the technology of AC but cannot control the temperature accurately enough.
- arethuza 9y agoI suspect it very much depends what you are used to - I probably think of 15C as "comfortable" and 25C inside would be sweltering. Having said that I'm in Scotland - the other day we had heavy rain and it was 8C which is weather we could get at any time of the year!
- ownagefool 9y agoFunny. I'm Scottish and I would find 15c utterly baltic, especially when inside.
- arethuza 9y agoI suspect its because we used to live in a very old property that was very difficult to heat. So we got used to it! Edit: I remember going to the halls at Uni for the first time and nearly dying of the heat - never lived anywhere that had central heating. Got used to and, of course, felt like I'd been exiled to Siberia when I went to my parents ramshackle large house for the Xmas break.
- fpoling 9y agoWhat closing do you use at 15C? After a few years in Norway I can be OK in a t-shirt at 18C. Anything below that still requires a jacket or sweater to stay comfortable.
- dEnigma 9y agoNot OP, but here in Austria I wear t-shirts for most of the year. I even used to go out in just a shirt on warmer winter days with only light snowfall, but nowadays I really notice the cold when I do that. Everything above 10°C is very comfortable to me. Among my friends and relatives I am the exception of course. Most of them dress in more layers, some even in summer.
- arethuza 9y agoQuite happy in a t-shirt at 15C - especially if doing something other than sitting at a PC!
- snarfy 9y agoAfter moving from Phoenix to the Seattle area, I've noticed the 'feels like' temperature is about 11C difference. 30C in Phoenix feels like 19C in Seattle.
- 9y ago
- pluma 9y agoIn Germany ~70°F (19-20°C) is considered "room temperature". 75°F is too damn warm. My brain pretty much stops working around 77°F.
- MandieD 9y agoIt seems to be common practice here in northern Bavaria to only cool offices to about 5 C below outside temp - so if it's 35 C (95 F) outside, only cooling to 30 (86 F). Fortunately, wearing shorts to work on extremely hot (over 30 C) days is also more socially acceptable here.
- snori74 9y agoIt once was in NZ too even in formal environments - we called them "walk shorts" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk_shorts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk_shorts - but they are now derided as an historic "fashion crime".
- kalleboo 9y agoYou acclimatize. I'm from chilly Sweden and used to start wearing T-shirts when it hit 18 C. Right now it's 27 C and I'm actually feeling a bit chilly (it was 29 C yesterday). Summers reach 36 C with high humidity.
- snarfy 9y agoI recall reading (no ref) that nazi experiments determined the optimal temperature for mental performance was 59F, which coincidentally is the average temperature of the earth.
- Lordarminius 9y agoOptimal for Caucasians maybe. In my office in the tropics, anything below 20C (68F) will generate howls of protest.
- Declanomous 9y ago
- slackingoff2017 9y agoIt depends on the climate. I used to live up north and we kept our houses and buildings around 68-71. I live in a hot climate now and it's normal to keep inside temps 75-78. In both places inside temps feel normal. The body seems to adjust it's idea of a comfortable temperature after acclimating to a new climate. When I first moved down south I kept my thermostat at 70 but it felt too cold after a few months. My most comfortable temperature is 76 now.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- 6nf 9y agoWe researched this and it seems like the 'optimal' temperature for office workers in warmer climates is 23-24 C or 73-75 F. In the winter your office temp should go down slightly to compensate for people wearing thicker clothes.
- ZeroGravitas 9y agoThey may have the issue of only having one thermostat for the whole building. They then have to balance the demands of the people in the coldest part of the building and those in the warmest part of the building. If the system isn't well designed, those could be tricky to reconcile.
- sqeaky 9y agoI would argue that if there isn't one thermostat per section or even per room, that the building is poorly designed.
- zb 9y agoYep, in the southeastern US it's routinely so cold inside that were it to get that cold in the winter, they would turn up the heat. Except that instead of wearing three layers of clothing you're in shorts and a T-shirt because it's 95F/35C+ and 100% humidity outside. I don't think I'll ever get used to this. I don't see how it's possible even in principle to acclimate to such large swings in temperature over such a short time frame.
- quantum_magpie 9y agoAs a person from northeastern Europe living in Tokyo, I really hate the Japanese doing something similar -- in the summer they set their ACs to 20-22, when it's 35 outside, while in the winter everywhere inside is at 25+, quite often even as high as 28. Plus, their ACs are the 'blow freezing wind in the face' type, so it's extremely terrible for the health. I have taken to wearing a quilt+buff for the neck during the summer just to avoid getting sick all the time. At least I sit next to a window, so I can let some warmer/cooler and fresher air to compensate, but it is such a waste of electricity, it drives me nuts.. It's also imposible to concentrate when the air gets too dry from the AC. ends rant