Is Your Office Always Freezing? Now You Know Who to Blame

In a “News & Views” commentary in the journal, Dr Joost van Hoof from Fontys University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, wrote: “These findings could be significant for the next round of revisions of thermal comfort standards – which are on a constant cycle of revision and public review – because of the opportunities to improve the comfort of office workers and the potential for reducing energy consumption”.

The biggest problem with Fanger’s approach-which assumes a 21°C (70° Fahrenheit) office would be the most comfortable-is that it doesn’t take women into account.

During the development of this formula, scientists chose a 40-year-old man weighing roughly 154 pounds as the basis for the equation’s resting metabolic rate.

Homes and offices generate as much as 30% of total carbon dioxide emissions, say the authors of the new study, Boris Kingma and Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt of Maastricht University in the Netherlands. “Ultimately, an accurate representation of thermal demand of all occupants leads to actual energy consumption predictions and real energy savings of buildings that are designed and operated by the buildings services community”.

Current air conditioning standards are the result of research from the 1960s, which used a standard “metabolic rate” to work out a comfortable working temperature. That will create the ideal environment for most of the people.

Because we’re using more energy trying to keep men cool we’re warming the planet.

It took into account a value for metabolic rate, which was based on the resting metabolic rate of one 70 kilogram (11 stone) 40-year-old man. The researchers estimated that this model overestimated the heat production of women by up to 35 percent.

It’s not just women who suffer. They tested external and internal body temperatures.

And the population is ageing and old people have a lower metabolic rate too. “I wouldn’t overestimate the effect of cleavage, but it’s there”.

A study of 16 young women performing light office work showed that they were at risk of being over-chilled by air-conditioning in summer.

So maybe it’s time to change the formula. In addition, women tend to have much stronger vasoconstrictive reactions than men-when they get cold, their blood vessels close faster, and their sensitivity to temperature increases.

The issue isn’t really only about gender but any “subpopulation”, like seniors or children, with a different metabolic rate than the 1960s guy used as the standard. To give you the basics, if the females in your office are too cold, you’re formula for what the temperature in the office should be is flawed, and therefore you are expending more energy than is necessary.

“Gosh, it’s nearly as if the people wearing heavier clothing might be warmer than the women in linen dresses would be”, said New York blogger Cassy Fiano.