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When I lived in the States it felt unbelievably weird that people in summer would wear sweatshirts because it was so freezing cold inside. My fellow American co
by baxtr 7y ago
When I lived in the States it felt unbelievably weird that people in summer would wear sweatshirts because it was so freezing cold inside. My fellow American colleagues thought however that was the most normal thing to do. I still don’t get it.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoThey want to make everyone happy. If you feel it’s too cold, you can throw something on. In the other direction, you don’t have any option if you feel it’s too hot after you’ve taken off your sweater/jacket.
- eeZah7Ux 7y agoEveryone except the environment (and therefore future generations)
- Slartie 7y agoBut where is that mythical person who is sweating in 22C/70F while wearing summer-appropriate (thin) clothes? I've never met anyone like that. Besides...forcing lots of people to carry sweatshirts around during summertime, just so they have some additional layers of clothing ready to be put on when they enter a home doesn't sound like "make everyone happy". It sounds like a huge inconvenience.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoI sweat at very low temperatures when the humidity is high, 20C is fine, 24C my arms will begin sweat up a bit, 26C then I'm thinking I should just quit for the day. Then I'm writing code, so that sweat sticks down to whatever desk I'm using, especially if I'm wearing short sleeves. So you can tell me (a) my arms shouldn't rest on the desk while I'm typing. Maybe, but it's not like I'm a "typist", I'm a programmer. And (b) maybe I should sweat at such low temperatures. Honestly, a lot has to do with the airflow and it seems difficult for buildings to circulate air without cooling things down unless they are throwing heat into it. > Besides...forcing lots of people to carry sweatshirts around during summertime, just so they have some additional layers of clothing ready to be put on when they enter a home doesn't sound like "make everyone happy" You really don't have to carry it around. Many people keep light sweaters at work. Bottom line, they are thinking about the difference between a programmer working at 100% and one working at 50%. And we are splitting hairs here: 22C is pretty ideal. 26C is not ideal at all. But people are all over the map on this. OSHA claims that anywhere from 68F (20C) to 76F (24.5C) works well. But you also need to consider humidity, and oftentimes the only thing that can take humidity out of the air is...the HVAC.
- u801e 7y ago> In the other direction, you don’t have any option if you feel it’s too hot after you’ve taken off your sweater/jacket. A ceiling or pedestal fan could work and would require far less energy to operate.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoIn an open office?
- thaumasiotes 7y agoIf by "work" you mean "spin on the ceiling without perceptibly affecting the temperature", then sure.
- weberc2 7y agoAmericans don’t think this is normal, but rather a nuisance that we have to put up with for some unknown reason. The building engineers responsible for maintaining the temperature of large office buildings presumably haven’t recalibrated their best practices from the days when offices were largely populated by obese men in suits.
- porknubbins 7y agoThis is strange but where I grew up in the hot humid south there was almost a subconscious association between cold AC and modernness, cleanliness, efficiency etc (traits a business would want to project) and inversely between weak AC and cheapness, backwardness, poverty etc. It actually makes sense in a hospital or supermarket but it was quite a relief to break this association and now 75 feels relaxed.
- weberc2 7y agoI could see that but it doesn’t explain why my recently refurbished downtown Yankee office building is a frosty 67F in the height of summer. :P
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]