I came into the office this morning. The fan was still on with the thermostat set at 23°C. 23°C!!!!

What’s wrong with these people?? 19°C please.

Agreed.

Does the thermostat actually work correctly, though?

In our office, the thermostat is set to 22 after repeated battles/arguments…..but the temperature varies from bloody freezing to ‘a bit too warm’ throughout the day.

There are 2 controller/thermostats in our side of the office, but no one seems really sure which one does what.

Plus you’ve got people sat directly under vents who get a constant stream of cold air down their neck….

The arguments/discussions it causes are very amusing!

Hark at you privileged folk with a thermostat in the office.

Ive got a window to control the temp or a fleece jacket

Any lower than 25 and we get moans that it’s too cold. 25 is shorts and t shirt temperature.

if you have wimmin in your office, you’re doomed, they’re all nesh ime. best to bring a jumper in, just in case.

Since the dawn of time women have felt the cold even when it’s officially not bloody cold. In these modern times the problem has been exasperated by thermostats in offices. Some say women shouldn’t be allowed to operate machinery, including thermostats, but I think we should move with the times and issue all women with Vivarium lamps.

One of the old engineers here changed the variable resistor in his home thermostat to a fixed one. His wife twiddles it up and down completely oblivious to the fact that it’s set at 19 degC, (or whatever he deemed correct) no matter where the knob points.

No prizes for guessing the sex of the person who set the thermostat at 23 then?

I worked with a woman who would set it at 25 every day, no matter what the weather. It’d be cracking the bloody flags outside and she’d have the heating on. Every day was a constant game of thermostat tennis. Every time she walked past it, she turned it to 25, whenever anyone else walked past it, it was clicked back down to ‘human being’ level

enfht – Member
Since the dawn of time women have felt the cold even when it’s officially not bloody cold.

……..whilst seemingly also requiring a hermetically sealed environment with not one hint of fresh or moving air

What is this “thermostat” of which people write? We have radiators in our offices, which are fitted with valves and we have windows, which are fitted with catches.

At home though we have thermostat wars in full swing; the Aga has been turned off for the summer otherwise in our SW-facing kitchen the sun shines through the bifold doors and the temperature hits 28c. In the lounge Mrs Gti cranks open the TRV on the big radiator and lights the wood burner then sits shivering and complaining about drafts while I’m stripped to the waist, sweating, with a knotted hankie on my head and a chilled cocktail with a small paper umbrella stuck in it.

Perception is your problem here – and it is a ‘battle of the sexes’ type thing.

I know for a fact that if you want to keep most of the people, happy most of the time, the ideal solution is to set the temp at 21.5c it’s slightly warmer than most Men would like and slightly colder than most Women would like – but it’s tolerable by most – then, you fit a set of dummy thermostats in strategic ‘Zones’ around the office – divide it into quarters, eights if it’s big enough and let everyone choose which temp they’d like and they’ll ‘feel’ the difference.

Oh and whilst we’re at it – I’m yet to meet a Women who can understand how a thermostat works “Oh I’m cold” whacks it up to 50c, “now I’m hot” turns it down to -5c, “now I’m cold” WTF?

If you have a thermostat with a flip cover then just set it to your ideal temperature and glue it shut.

Suggest as a lean improvement that the temperature is set to 21 deg C as studies show that people work better in cooler offices.

One of the old engineers here changed the variable resistor in his home thermostat to a fixed one. His wife twiddles it up and down completely oblivious to the fact that it’s set at 19 degC, (or whatever he deemed correct) no matter where the knob points.

..might have to try this. That or a dummy thermostat at home.

It’s endless in the office – the poor office manager getting dragged every which way by people variously having their ‘zone’ set up/down dependent on god knows what. Currently, the menfolk have temporarily gained the upper hand and the office is set to a nice, cool temp. I fully expect by mid-afternoon this’ll be ramped up to somewhere between 23 and 25.

All the chaps have those mini USB fans on their desks. I think pretty much very female has a hot-water bottle. No-one is very happy for long.

Luckily, I’ve a properly chilled comms-room I can escape to…

Luckily, I’ve a properly chilled comms-room I can escape to…

+1

I have a desk fan under the desk blowing cool air on my knackers, it stops blowing all the papers around the desk. But I’ve got the afternoon off today and I’m going cycling in the hills, hahahah see ya later office suckers!

an architect would tell you that when half the office is complaining its too cold, and half its too hot then the temperature is exactly right.

That’s why the country has gone to the dogs, no one has a proper job nowadays.

Im in shorts and flip flops. Not looking forward to ever going back to a corperate job!

TBH I suspect most of these arguments would be solved if stupid sexist dresscodes were dropped. Of course youre hot in a suit and tie, and cold in an open necked blouse!

My mankini, hiking socks and woolly hat combo regulate my body temperature perfectly in all temperatures

Suggest as a lean improvement that the temperature is set to 21 deg C as studies show that people work better in cooler offices.

Depends on the study – this one shows that in an environment that involves typing (most offices) highest productivity was at 25°C.
http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2004/10/warm-offices-linked-fewer-typing-errors-higher-productivity

I worked with a woman who would set it at 25 every day, no matter what the weather

Yes, thats how thermostats work – the weather outside makes no difference.
In fact the recommendation is if anything to turn the thermostat up on warmer days to reduce the temperature differential.

FWIW, we had lots of complaints about the AC in our office for a while, and I was our departments representative trying to sort it out.
Best results came by moving cold people away from the AC vents, moving hot people closer to the AC vents, and making sure all the thermostats were set to 23°C and fan speed 1.

It’s also not exclusively a man/woman divide, also a fat/thin divide.
Happy to admit i’m cold blooded, if our AC was at 19°C dress code would be abandoned and i’d be working in a softshell

My mankini, hiking socks and woolly hat combo regulate my body temperature perfectly in all temperatures

Yes, thats how thermostats work – the weather outside makes no difference.

I think the point was perhaps that some people would expect some variation in what it is set to according to the season. I wear thinner, lighter shirts in the summer than I do in the winter, for example, so would expect and appreciate the office to be warmer than it is when I wear a jumper in the winter.

A pet hate of mine is buses where the driver is sitting in shirt sleeves in the middle of winter with the bus heated appropriately so he’s not cold. You get on the bus with your fleece lined winter jacket, hat and gloves and start to melt…

EDIT :

In fact the recommendation is if anything to turn the thermostat up on warmer days to reduce the temperature differential.

Missed that bit, I think we’re saying the same thing. 🙂

globalti said:

.. the Aga has been turned off… the sun shines through the bifold doors …. … and lights the wood burner…

BINGO!
#middleclassedition

Sitting in the office with erect nipples. Just how I like it.

My job is basically having the thermostat argument with an entire university. Academics are always fun for this, i’ve found electric heaters plugged in below BEMS sensors (posh thermostats) and they complain the radiators aren’t on
We’ve had buildings fooled into turning on AC in winter!

Yes, thats how thermostats work – the weather outside makes no difference.

In fact the recommendation is if anything to turn the thermostat up on warmer days to reduce the temperature differential.

I’m sorry, but anyone who wants to walk indoors on a hot sunny day into an office that has a temperature of 25 is just unhinged, and should probably have their hands chopped off if they make any attempt to get at the controls

I work with two women and a bloke who spends every third week in Spain. The thermostat is normally at around 23 to 25. I just wear shorts and T-shirt pretty much year round and crack on

I’m sorry, but anyone who wants to walk indoors on a hot sunny day into an office that has a temperature of 25 some 10 degrees below outside temp is just unhinged, and should probably have their hands chopped off if they make any attempt to get at the controls

FTFY

I can only dream of 19°C.. It’s 32°C in my office and that is with the air con on! 😯 😥

My job is basically having the thermostat argument with an entire university.

Hopefully your University isn’t set up like mine where radiators in lots of labs are inaccessible, and for a reasonable period of time in both spring and autumn the rads are fighting the AC…

It took me four years to get Estates to fit a thermostatic valve to the rad in my office.

Hopefully your University isn’t set up like mine where radiators in lots of labs are inaccessible, and for a reasonable period of time in both spring and autumn the rads are fighting the AC…

Ah the joys of the incorrectly controlled dead-band
We’ve got a fair bit of that, but we’re trying to pinpoint it and re-configure the controls to stop it.
TRV’s are good in some instances, but then also a problem when people (admin offices!) just whack them on full and then complain about being too hot.

No one wins the thermostat wars, I just lose on my utilities budgets and carbon reporting

If you are in an office with multiple zone controllers you can centrally set the temperature and then lock off the function of all local area control panels.

Ask the tech end of your operation if that is the case.

The controller is normally near the condensers, roof or car park I imagine

We moved into a new office this week, the air con controls have a PIN!

It’s bloody brilliant, the office manager has just been round asking how everyone is finding the temperature and is going to adjust it in 1 degree increments until we’ve got the majority of the office happy.

TRV’s are good in some instances, but then also a problem when people (admin offices!) just whack them on full and then complain about being too hot.

Just me and another one with a comfort point of 18 deg in my office so zero arguments thankfully. Mind you I do have to keep all the lab aircon controllers locked away to stop the wars there!

Plus you’ve got people sat directly under vents who get a constant stream of cold air down their neck…

Yep, been there, but even in a very large room where the entire space is staffed by women except for one man, there were arguments about it being too warm or too cold, depending on whether the person is sat below the vents, further out in the room, or near the only windows, far away from the a/c vents, which are always opened when it’s hot.

nwmlarge – Member
If you are in an office with multiple zone controllers

I do.
Put a jumper on.
Take a jumper off.
See. Custom heating controls.

Great thing about being a sales rep is i just spend the day adjusting the AC in the car and only have my self to annoy. Used to share and office with a guy who was on lots of medication (illegal when i started but prescribed after he had a heart bypass) and a lady who wohldnt let us open a door or window