4 ms·

In South Africa everyone is cold in the winter (if you are not in places like the KnP) due to bad designs and insulation, bad clothing perceptions and cultural

In South Africa everyone is cold in the winter (if you are not in places like the KnP) due to bad designs and insulation, bad clothing perceptions and cultural factors. A guy once told me that they install thermostats in corporate buildings that are actually disconnected from the system because people complain less if they can see thermostats in the room. Basically, in the winter, we need to wear jackets while sitting at our desks in a place like JHB simply because the ventilation for some reason is pretty cold. I've heard that in European businesses you take off all your warm clothes indoors and just wear a T-shirt or other shirt. There is also what we call it the "aircon" war. Usually black people (and myself) want the aircon off, but white people want it on. This is a joke though so don't take it too seriously (or racially). But this is mostly about when the aircon is cooling the building. When it is supposed to heat the building in a colder region most people will agree that the rooms are too cold, but for some reason we can't seem to learn this lesson. By the way, for the sake of interest, Jan Smuts was well known for having a house with very cold winters and very hot summers. It is said that his guests would often comment on this when they stayed over. [1] [1] Jan Smuts: Unafraid of Greatness. Richard Steyn

sgt 7y ago
I love a good Smuts anecdote, he was a fascinating person. I'm near Cape Town and I can confirm that it's also freezing cold here during winter. You see more people investing in double glazed windows like they do in Europe. I've done this to my house and it works really well against both heat, cold and sound. Combined with an efficient fireplace, you can enjoy a toasty winter in the cold winter evenings.
- mikorym 7y ago
  Is this possible on an existing house? (And will it break the bank?) EDIT: Okay well of course it should be as this is what you have done already. So, maybe what I am asking is how complicated is the process...
  - sgt 7y ago
    I did it on an existing house. It's very simple and not too expensive. I went for uPVC double glazed windows, doors etc. For a typical 1x1.5m window you'd probably pay around R3500 including installation.
paganel 7y ago
> There is also what we call it the "aircon" war. We have "aircon" wars over here in Romania, too. I'm now working from home but in the previous ~15 years of me working from an office one of the major stresses while moving in with new office colleagues was "will we be able to not kill each other in the summer over how the AC should work?" (I'm exaggerating, but only by a bit). We also have what we call "curent" which is translated to "draft". There are many online articles about how foreigners view our (Romanians') obsession with "curent", this [1] is just one of them. [1] https://jsbangs.com/2011/12/13/draft-romanias-silent-killer/ https://jsbangs.com/2011/12/13/draft-romanias-silent-killer/
- lambdadmitry 7y ago
  Same "dangerous drafts" thing in Russia, too
Aromasin 7y ago
I think every office/home seems to have an air-con war between certain demographics. Our engineering company has started hiring more women, which I'm entirely for except for the fact the thermostat has seemingly crept up about 0.5C a day since the new hires have started coming in. I have cold showers every day, so anything above a cold breeze makes me sweat. I have the argument daily that you can wear jumpers scarves and hats if you're cold, but can't strip down any lower than a shirt when you're hot. Each day it still seems to climb...
gurkendoktor 7y ago
> There is also what we call it the "aircon" war. I have yet to experience an aircon war in Germany, but there is also a pattern where men want to open a window to keep the air fresh, while women find it too chilly and want to turn on a radiator instead (of course there are exceptions). I can't get much done in radiator air, so that's one more reason to work from home, or in well-matched office rooms.
- close04 7y ago
  > men want to open a window to keep the air fresh, while women find it too chilly This tends to happen a lot in environments where business attire is a must. It's harder to find a good compromise when some people wear business suit and tie and some wear skirts or open shoulders. And that's even before you factor in possible physiological factors (people have different comfort zones).
  - gurkendoktor 7y ago
    Thankfully I've never worked in an office where suits were a thing. But this was a recurring issue even in a typical IT environment (jeans and T-shirts), and at school before that.
  - pbhjpbhj 7y ago
    Force the women to wear suits too, or let the men wear shorts and a shirt with no tie. If you've got menopausal women that's a problem too, and I think perhaps women and men just have different temperature preference distributions. My kids teachers (all female) refuse to let the boys wear shorts except in Summer term because the teachers consider it not to be warm enough .. but they wear skirts and dresses all year .. which is weird. Established norms on dress and room heating/cooling are pretty arbitrary I feel.
    - close04 7y ago
      > perhaps women and men just have different temperature preference distributions I bundled all that under "physiological factors". There are also sociocultural factors at play but that's a minefield of a discussion. It's how gender stereotypes are born and educated into kids from a young age.

sgt 7y ago

I love a good Smuts anecdote, he was a fascinating person. I'm near Cape Town and I can confirm that it's also freezing cold here during winter. You see more people investing in double glazed windows like they do in Europe. I've done this to my house and it works really well against both heat, cold and sound. Combined with an efficient fireplace, you can enjoy a toasty winter in the cold winter evenings.

mikorym 7y ago
Is this possible on an existing house? (And will it break the bank?) EDIT: Okay well of course it should be as this is what you have done already. So, maybe what I am asking is how complicated is the process...
- sgt 7y ago
  I did it on an existing house. It's very simple and not too expensive. I went for uPVC double glazed windows, doors etc. For a typical 1x1.5m window you'd probably pay around R3500 including installation.

paganel 7y ago

> There is also what we call it the "aircon" war. We have "aircon" wars over here in Romania, too. I'm now working from home but in the previous ~15 years of me working from an office one of the major stresses while moving in with new office colleagues was "will we be able to not kill each other in the summer over how the AC should work?" (I'm exaggerating, but only by a bit). We also have what we call "curent" which is translated to "draft". There are many online articles about how foreigners view our (Romanians') obsession with "curent", this [1] is just one of them. [1] https://jsbangs.com/2011/12/13/draft-romanias-silent-killer/ https://jsbangs.com/2011/12/13/draft-romanias-silent-killer/

lambdadmitry 7y ago
Same "dangerous drafts" thing in Russia, too

Aromasin 7y ago

I think every office/home seems to have an air-con war between certain demographics. Our engineering company has started hiring more women, which I'm entirely for except for the fact the thermostat has seemingly crept up about 0.5C a day since the new hires have started coming in. I have cold showers every day, so anything above a cold breeze makes me sweat. I have the argument daily that you can wear jumpers scarves and hats if you're cold, but can't strip down any lower than a shirt when you're hot. Each day it still seems to climb...

gurkendoktor 7y ago

> There is also what we call it the "aircon" war. I have yet to experience an aircon war in Germany, but there is also a pattern where men want to open a window to keep the air fresh, while women find it too chilly and want to turn on a radiator instead (of course there are exceptions). I can't get much done in radiator air, so that's one more reason to work from home, or in well-matched office rooms.

close04 7y ago
> men want to open a window to keep the air fresh, while women find it too chilly This tends to happen a lot in environments where business attire is a must. It's harder to find a good compromise when some people wear business suit and tie and some wear skirts or open shoulders. And that's even before you factor in possible physiological factors (people have different comfort zones).
- gurkendoktor 7y ago
  Thankfully I've never worked in an office where suits were a thing. But this was a recurring issue even in a typical IT environment (jeans and T-shirts), and at school before that.
- pbhjpbhj 7y ago
  Force the women to wear suits too, or let the men wear shorts and a shirt with no tie. If you've got menopausal women that's a problem too, and I think perhaps women and men just have different temperature preference distributions. My kids teachers (all female) refuse to let the boys wear shorts except in Summer term because the teachers consider it not to be warm enough .. but they wear skirts and dresses all year .. which is weird. Established norms on dress and room heating/cooling are pretty arbitrary I feel.
  - close04 7y ago
    > perhaps women and men just have different temperature preference distributions I bundled all that under "physiological factors". There are also sociocultural factors at play but that's a minefield of a discussion. It's how gender stereotypes are born and educated into kids from a young age.