Environmentally OK Lounge temperatures

[Malcolm Stewart]

Saw a TV programme yesterday(?) in which an "Environmental expert" advised setting the CH thermostat to 18degC. This is way below where I'd now feel comfortable, and even in my 20s I preferred 19degC as the lowest temp. in a draught free lounge - for prolonged sitting, e.g. watching TV.

When working in a large open plan air conditioned building with very slight air movement, I found that 23degC was necessary - particularly for our female workers. Can't remember what the humidity was, but I recall that it was quite low.

Any other views?

[Owain]

Have you considered wearing clothes?

Owain

[TMC]

"Malcolm Stewart" wrote in message news:469dff4c$0$30848$ [e-mail]...

Tony

[Mary Fisher]

"Malcolm Stewart" wrote in message news:469dff4c$0$30848$ [e-mail]...

I wouldn't be comfortable with anything warmer than 15C.

Mary

[John Rumm]

Depends a bit on what you are wearing!

I would find 18 ok in light clothes assuming there were no drafts.

I have our prog stat fall to 16 overnight, and that does not feel particularly cold. The highest it ever goes is 21.

The humidity will have a big effect on the "feel" of the temperature. So

23 in low humidity will feel cooler than 23 in high humidity. In the same way that 28 dry heat is reasonably tolerable for most, but 28 in high humidity starts to get quite oppressive.

The general weather and mode also affects one's perception. On a dark, cold wet day in winter, you may feel that 20 degrees inside is too cool, but on a blistering hot summer's day (remember them?), 20 would feel rather nice.

[tony sayer]

In article , Mary Fisher writes

Gawd.. You sound just like my mum, god rest her soul..

Never wore anything much warmer than a tee shirt in any weather, winter or summer;)..

[Bob Mannix]

"Malcolm Stewart" wrote in message news:469dff4c$0$30848$ [e-mail]...

Not quite sure what you want! The colder you are, the more environmentally friendly, end of story. So, whoever you are, if you want to be as environmentally friendly as you can stand, have it as cold as you can stand. Quite simple really! If you want to be warm and comfy without layers of clothing, let go the environmentally friendly bit.

[TheScullster]

"Malcolm Stewart" wrote

Ignoring all the environmental impact etc., you figures seem spot on to me! Home heating at 19c and works aircon in design office at 23c.

(Guess I've done something for the environment already getting a condensing boiler and dual zoning the heating recently)

Phil

[Roger]

The message from "Malcolm Stewart" contains these words:

You can get used to almost any temperature if you have to. :-)

My 20s are too long ago for me to recall what the room temperatures were but I wear thinner clothes indoors now and I can't even recall the last time I found ice on the inside of a window.

I have a 1965 Collins Architects and Builders diary which I keep as a reference book. Among other recommendations are living rooms at 65F and bedrooms at 55F. (18.3C and 12.8C). I suspect that most people these days would find those too low.

In 1965 62 - 65F was considered adequate.

FWIW I have my living room thermostat set at 19C for an hour or so in the morning and through the evening with the rest of daytime at 17C and overnight fall-back at 13C. Bedroom on a different zone is never above

18C. Being retired I am at home quite a lot. I would have a rather different set of temperatures if I was only here for more limited periods.

[David Hansen]

On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:45:36 +0100 someone who may be "Malcolm Stewart" wrote this:-

Then put on a jersey. As well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a jersey is cheaper to run than central heating.

[Mary Fisher]

I can. It was in the 1940s when we had a coal fire, coal was rationed and the small fire was only lit for a few hours a day. There was no heating in the bedrooms. In the long winter of '47 my father walked across the city with a pram to collect waste coal from spoil heaps.

Oh - and last winter on the single paned glass windows of our tiny caravan on a Welsh mountain. We were cosy under the duvet though and had no pennies to warm to make a spy-hole in the window. By clamping a wool blanket on the outside of the window we prevented the icing up but I couldn't see the stars at night - some you win!

I only remember feeling cold once as a child, when my fingers couldn't fasten the many rubber buttons on my 'liberty' bodice.

In the classroom we had a coal fire too.

I'm not being puritanical, I don't like being cold. but I rarely am inside this house. I'm usually far too warm in other people's houses.

Wearing adequate clothing helps ... not masses of fur, just enough to insulate from the cold.

Mary

[Andy Hall]

Yes. The environmental "expert" needs to be told to mind his own business and have pointed out that his advice is bogus in the first place. It's a matter for individual decision based on comfort and cost.

Did he deliver his message in Latin?

If people want to run their living room at 23 degrees and sit in the nude or at 18 degrees and sit in trawlermen's outfits it's a matter for them

There's no point in taking the views of females into account either. They don't thermoregulate at all well.

[David Hansen]

On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:59:46 +0100 someone who may be Roger wrote this:-

It would have been in the late 1980s, when I was living in London. That was inside a relatively modern building too.

[David Hansen]

On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 20:23:16 +0100 someone who may be Andy Hall wrote this:-

Only if the decisions individuals make don't affect others, which isn't the case with climate change.

[Andy Hall]

So what?

Perhaps some people don't *want* to put on a jersey. I could understand your comment if yiou were selling Norwegian jumpers, bur the production of those in the Scottish region is a long way from waht it was.

[Owain]

If it's the one I saw the Environmental Expert was a female.

Owain

[Andy Hall]

That makes the assumption that individuals affect climate change and that they have an interest in doing something on a collective basis if indeed a larger number influence climate change.

[John]

Well, I for one choose to bury my head in the sand and poo-poo the idea of human influence within climate change. I have no doubt whatsoever that the climate is, indeed, changing but think that it would do it anyway, completely independently of whether we turn our heating up or down. I will not be uncomfortable in my own home and I will have the heating on or off as I see fit for my own comfort - you do what you like.

John

[Andy Hall]

Which makes it all the more surprising - although she may have a different view at different times.

[Owain]

She never said this was what she did at home; this was only what she was telling other people to do.

(Thinks of "Dr." Gillian McKeith in a cream cake shop.)

Owain