Is it really "Cool to be cold"?

[crfriend]

Commenting on something I've see in the USA in recent years is that the overuse of air chilling has gotten to an extreme -- to the point where inside environments are truly bloody COLD most of the year. This is ALL OVER THE PLACE now, and I can't seem to get away from it.

Has this spread to the Real World or is it confined to the United States?

[Barleymower]

Commenting on something I've see in the USA in recent years is that the overuse of air chilling has gotten to an extreme -- to the point where inside environments are truly bloody COLD most of the year. This is ALL OVER THE PLACE now, and I can't seem to get away from it.

Has this spread to the Real World or is it confined to the United States?

Air conditioning is very unBritsh

[crfriend]

Air conditioning is very unBritsh

The problem is is that this is NOT "air conditioning". This is outright refrigeration.

Traditional "air conditioning" has three components -- heating, cooling, and dehumidification -- and all three are important. What seems to have fallen by the wayside is dehumidification. which given climate change has become more tropical and humid, and that makes it all the more important.

Unfortunately, dehumidification uses chilling as one part of its action (to condense water from the air) -- and then the heat needs to be added back in again to make it temperature neutral. This seems counter-intuitive to the current crop of engineers who don't properly grasp the problem and rely on chilling instead -- and it seems to have caught on as a cultural phenomenon. There seem to be practically NO public spaces I can visit today where I don't wind up shivering -- and I dress for it. It's a nice 75 degrees (F) outside and inside it's more like 62.

I'm getting set to give up.

[Dust]

Ever since I was a kid, I have overheated easily. It's a big part of why I started wearing skirts in the first place. Men are expected to dress in warm attire (long pants, and in some situations long sleeves, and even a jacket and tie) year round, while women can dress for the warm weather, with airy skirts and dresses. Needless to say, I appreciate A/C.

I remember hearing a discussion on the radio of A/C being sexist against women, who would find it too cold in the summer. I wanted to call in and point out that it was the male dress codes (written or implied) that were sexist against men, and the A/C gave some small amount of relief. Also, putting on a sweater is easy, taking clothing off in a too hot office isn't really an option...

I unfortunately wasn't able to call in and share this point at the time. It must have been a decade ago by now. The weather has been brutally humid the past few years. I'm told atmospheric humidity has been up since a record breaking underwater volcanic eruption boiled an unbelievable amount of ocean water a few years ago. By some estimates it raised the water vapor levels in the upper atmosphere by about 10%, and worldwide ocean temperatures by a full degree or more.

Reasons aside, the only place I see air conditioning that can be run with heat to dehumidify any more is in automobiles. You can turn on the A/C and the heat simultaneously in many vehicles to dry the air inside. That and standalone dehumidifiers, of course...

[denimini]

Overcooling is quite common in Australia. Many times I have been at meetings where at any break some of us will go outside the building to warm up.
Supermarkets are bad for this too, probably thinking that in hot weather people will be tempted to stay in the store longer and buy more ............ I can't wait to get back outside. Besides it is a waste of energy and the condensors outside add to a heat island effect together with hard surfaces and dark colours.
Some buildings require a stable temperature to prevent structural failure due to expansion and contraction of the materials used, even when uninhabited.
Generally most humans are comfortable within an 11C temperature range which can change over time (a couple of weeks) to adapt to different climates.

[moonshadow]

Growing up in Virginia, some homes had air conditioning, others did not. Still others didn't have central air but people used window units. One of my favorite "smells" is when the AC is clicked on for the first time in the season, kinda has a fresh ozone smell to it while the dust from the winter works its way through the coils. A pleasant memory tied to smell.

The locals in the PNW tell me that air conditioning never used to be a thing here until recently. They claim it's gotten warmer, but it struggled to get out of the low 70's all summer. It's currently 66 degrees and the air outside has a slight chill to it..., Unheard of for early August back in Virginia! The houses here don't seem designed for air conditioning. Many don't have central air units, and almost all residential dwellings have windows that open side to side rather than top/bottom sashes that are common back east. It makes it interesting getting a window unit installed. You wind up putting a piece of plywood (or in my case, very thick styrofoam) in the gap up top.

We have a small 5k BTU AC in the bedroom, but that's it. We didn't even buy it because of high temps, the box fan in the window was doing fine at night. We purchased it because we have neighbors that tend to be obnoxious well into the night and leaving the windows open while trying to sleep was not an option. So now we run an AC every night whether it's needed or not. The white noise helps drown out the screaming and yelling and it also allows us to keep the windows closed. It sucks but it is what it is.

'Murica 2025.

[Seb]

You can buy small AC units here in Sweden, but every summer the sale if cheap floor fans goes through the roof and the AC boxes collect dust. We only have a month or two with temps over 20°c, so we just live with it being a few degrees more than that indoors. This year we had a whole week of temps into 27-28°c, indoors usually 2-3° warmer. My (American) wife complained a lot about it and wanted to get an AC unit... We compromisesed and got a third floor fan.

[geron]

We have a small 5k BTU AC in the bedroom....

Good gracious! Are British Thermal Units still in circulation in Murica?? In their homeland, you have to be very ancient (like me) even to have heard of them.

[Kirbstone]

Ours is a maritime temperate climate with average Summer temps not much higher than Winter, so lots of places have both heating, used more often and air-con, used sparingly in Summer and never to excess in my experience.
Most of us find 21-24 deg Centipede /70-80 F pleasant. For my sins in my Practice I sought to get the ambient temp within this range and most shops manage that too.
I recently spent a week aboard a 50Ft sailing yot in Greece, where the daily temp. got up to and above blood heat by mid-morning. Fortunately we had enough power available to operate the on-board air-con, keeping cabin & saloon temps comfortable. Not so up in the cocpit, where one cowered in the shade under the big bimini and relied on the forward motion to keep temps there bearable. One swam in the sea off the stern wearing a hat, usually and showered there on the platform using freshwater to get rid of the salt.

Tom