Why is 72 degrees considered comfortable room temperature?

HamRadioRocks · Heavy Crude Joined: Jul 19, 2006 Posts: 108

A 72-degree room feels comfortable only in the spring and fall.

During the winter, I find 72 degrees is too warm. That's how warm my workplace is. I have to come to work wearing a business casual short-sleeved shirt under my sweater (or two sweaters), as stripping down to my undershirt would be inappropriately sloppy attire. In winter, my definition of a comfortable room temperature is lower, because I'm wearing more clothing, and I'm used to the cold. The occupational hazard of conserving energy at home by turning the thermostat down is the discomfort I feel in places where the powers that be insist on using excessive heat. I notice this even more starkly now that I'm keeping the thermostat at only 59 degrees instead of the 67 degrees I maintained before I discovered peakoil.com. Remember also that I'm much thinner than everyone else (BMI just below 20, which puts me in the bottom 10%), so everyone else should be able to handle lower temperatures than I can.

In the summer, on the other hand, I find 72 degrees to be too cold. If I'm wearing a T-shirt and shorts, I shiver and get goosebumps at 72 degrees, especially if I'm sitting still and am used to the heat. In summer, my definition of a comfortable room temperature is higher, because I'm wearing less clothing, and I'm used to warmer temperatures. The occuptional hazard of conserving energy by raising the thermostat (I set the window thermostat to maintain an inside temperature of 79 degrees) is that I easily get cold everywhere else.

So given all this, why do people have the idea that the object of climate control is to maintain a constant 72 degrees inside all year long? I only find that temperature comfortable during the mild seasons of spring and fall, when the great outdoors don't subject me to extreme temperatures and when my attire is neither very heavy nor very light.

It also can't be healthy to keep swinging back and forth between heat and cold. I can adjust to the heat, I can adjust to the cold, but I can't adjust to both at the same time. It seems to me that spending too much time in overheated rooms in winter would make a person more vulnerable to frostbite and hypothermia, and spending too much time in over air-conditioned rooms in summer would make a person more vulnerable to heat exhaustion and heatstroke.

These artificial temperature extremes that clash with the predominant outside environment (which is what I dress for and try to adapt to) is one thing that I won't be missing in the Post Peak World.

Narz

Dunno, I prefer about 60-70 myself. My girlfriend runs cold so she prefers more heat (she'd probably be happy at 75).
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NeoPeasant

I have been trying to adapt myself to as wide of a temperature comfort zone as possible. The smaller the difference between the the temperature of the space you are heating or cooling and the outdoor temperature, the less energy you use. I might be wrong but I think energy consumption goes up exponentially as the temperature difference increases.
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Ancien_Opus · Heavy Crude Joined: Jul 21, 2005 Posts: 148

A statisical analysis by Dr. Kano explains this phenomena.

Essentially you're dealing with a population where the comfort zone
is the point at which the greatest number individuals in the population
are satisfied. This attains the greatest satisifaction for the greatest number of individuals. Moving away from the central satisfaction point such as up or down the temperature scale yeilds more dissatified individuals.

If you look at any single individual they may be more or less comfortable at 72 degrees. It is a compromise for the benefit
of the largest group of individuals. This should not be confused with
the majority because that point is the inflexion at which less than
half of the population is satisfied.

Your personal room temperature is a matter of choice where as
room temperature for a group is a matter of compromise.

gg3

Yes, room temp for a group is going to have to be a compromise: between soaring fuel costs and whining crybabies.

I say 60 in the winter and 80 in the summer and adjust the clothing.

Few things feel as cozy as putting on a pair of long johns on a chilly day, or as relaxing as running around the house in underwear in the summer. Climbing into a bed piled high with quilts and blankets is the archetypal example of a critter getting snug in its nest.

I've taken to wearing a scarf as well as a knit cap while indoors. Amazing the difference the scarf makes: I never realized I lost so much heat through my neck when just sitting still.

As for the office dress code, one of the more pleasant challenges of our times is for clothing designers to come up with styles that express the intended moods or cultural connotations while at the same time being conducive to appropriate indoor temperatures. Clothing designers, in fact, could bring about an enormous reduction in our national energy consumption if they put themselves to the task.

Niagara

Much of it has to do with humidity.

In the winter your indoor air tends to be drier. So your perspiration evaporates a bit faster and you feel cooler. In the high humidity of summer it's the opposite.
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BurnCalories · Tar Sands Joined: Mar 07, 2006 Posts: 21

While internal body temperature is 98.6 degerees+/-, the temperature of the skin is usually around 72-76 degrees. That is why a temperature around that range is usually comfortable. In the winter you would normally be wearing more clothes, so a lower temp would feel better.

Tyler_JC

rockdoc123 · Light Sweet Crude Joined: May 16, 2005 Posts: 1666

Most people who visit us hate us...we keep the thermostat low enough during the winter that we always have to wear a fairly thick wooly jumper. This is partly because we don't see any need to burn more energy than necessary and partly because we grew up in families where....well that's just what you did. Our house is now pretty efficient and one of the things I did was install a fireplace that works as a wall furnace in our lowest floor. It puts out a ton of heat and is incredibly more efficient than any of the real high efficiency furnaces. So when the air gets a wee bit nippy we just crank up the fireplace for a half hour or so and the whole house is pleasantly warm. Because the back of our house is south facing and has a lot of windows and tons of insulation our furnace only comes on very late at night during peak winter time.
I'm a firm believer in "all problems can easily be solved by a hot mug of tea and and a wooly jumper". In fact I'm thinking of patenting this as a means to world peace. Wink

snax · Tar Sands Joined: Jan 20, 2007 Posts: 75

I've always tried to live by the lowest common denominator that one can always put on more clothing, but if you are sitting around sweating in your underwear, there's little left to do about it except lowering the thermostat or finding some place cooler.

After 4 years of being together, I've finally got my wife convinced that it doesn't have to be 70 in the house all day during the winter, so we now get by on 68 from 6AM to 9PM. This has the added benefit of me not complaining about an overheated house when she bakes, since at worst, the temperature only jumps as high as 70 most of the time.

So, if you have a partner that seems always chilly and enjoy their baking, you know what to encourage.

skyemoor

mommy22 · Heavy Crude Joined: Jul 22, 2005 Posts: 264

In our home, we keep the temps at about 68 from 8am-3pm, also from 10pm-5am. At the other times, we put it up to 71 while we are getting ready for work and school, and when the kids come home from school. It's not worth it for everyone to be too uncomfortable. I wear my woolies and love the feel of a scarf around my neck all day...it does make a huge difference.
Our family has lived in many places...some hot (south Florida) some cold/hot (Ohio) and some just right (Belgium/France) (thank you Goldilocks) One's body changes with the different climes, and you try to do what the situation calls for. I remember visiting some incredible cathedrels in France, and they were downright cold in the early spring once. I asked how the people at the time (1000 years ago) could handle this level of chill, and the answer was that they were used to that level of chill...their bodies adjusted to it, and really, they had no other choice. When things change for humanity in coming years, I imagine that we may need to reacclimate our bodies to local temps, and just deal with it, no matter the lack of comfort. (Wool makes the warmest scarfs...I don't like synthetic)

frankthetank

When i'm out hiking in the woods i try to calculate how many of the trees i see will be needed to heat my area of roughly 70K. I figure most of the bluffs around here will be rocky outcroppings with little/no vegetation due to mass wood removal for heating...within 50yrs, my guess being Smile

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eastbay

I'm with gg3 here.

Generally 60 in winter and 80 in summer is ideal. Today it's 47 outside and 59 inside. We have the heater off. I'm barefoot, wearing a long sleeved t-shirt and sweat shirt. Adding more heat in the house only serves to increase the craving for more and more heat adding nothing to comfort.

It's the same in summer. Last summer we left the ac off other than a few 'tests'. It reached 90 once inside. So what. Generally late afternoon was mid 80's inside and no one got sick or died. A gentle breeze with the open window was perfect.

I bet energy companies started that silly 72 degrees nonsense. 72 degrees has nothing to do with comfort.
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