Inside the large room was a “chilling” space. This is especially true when summer comes, the time when the air conditioners start to work and women replace the work wardrobe with light jackets, long skirts and high heels.
In fact, there are dozens of reasons why office buildings are modeled after the ice cave of the planet Hoth (in the Star Wars movies). One issue that has been debated by scientists is that setting up office thermostats is still influenced by research from the 1960s, and the numbers in the study are gender-specific. strong.
The truth is a bit more complicated, but it’s especially true of office buildings that are said to be “frozen” making many employees uncomfortable, says Stefano Schiavon, an associate professor of architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley.
So where is the right place for us? What can we do to train our bodies to be more “tolerant” of the cold? What could make the work environment more comfortable?
In fact, changing our body’s response to cold isn’t easy, although it can be done at times. There are other ways to make the office more pleasant for everyone, even finding the right balance can be beneficial to health.
Not all offices have the same temperature standards.
Of course, I know my office is too cold
Not all offices have the same temperature standards. However, women tend to feel the cold more quickly than men and seem to have a particularly difficult time adapting to winter working conditions even in pleasant weather.
That’s partly because the average female body has slightly more body fat . ” Fat is an excellent insulator and, therefore, real female skin temperature,” said John Castellani, a biophysicist at the US Army’s Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick, Massachusetts. economy may be slightly lower than that of men “.
According to Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt, a physiologist at Maastricht University Medical Center in the Netherlands, a lower metabolism in women is also a reason. In 2015, Lichtenbelt reported that female office workers had a lower metabolic rate than those in the group studied to provide the necessary conditions for people to feel comfortable in the room . ” Room climate standards at a particular time can skew the heat needs of women and the elderly ,” according to a study in the journal Nature Climate Change. They also note that women may be comfortable with an average room temperature of 25 degrees Celsius, while men are around 22 degrees Celsius.
Of course, the study was conducted on a small number of people, women and this is only a generalization. There are many variables that affect the body’s response to cold such as physiology, height, weight, weight, clothing and type of activity, Schiavon said.
According to engineer Bjarne Olesen, in fact, the room climate standards set by the Association of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers ASHRAE take into account women. There is a greater difference between the metabolic rate between individuals than between the sexes.
However, both Lichtenbelt and Olesen can agree that office buildings are too cold. The ASHRAE standard suggests room temperatures in summer should be between 23-26 degrees Celsius. But a 2009 survey of office buildings showed that room temperatures are often below this limit and actually colder than most. temperature turned on for winter.
“This means that everyone, regardless of gender, is at risk of catching a cold, especially in the summer,” says Lichtenbelt. Offices these days typically have temperatures around 20-22 degrees Celsius.
Air conditioning is a device often blamed for making the office too cold, says Schiavon. The air conditioning system is often overloaded and must balance between temperature and air humidity. Whatever the reason, we are maintaining a temperature where employees are not really comfortable.
How to face?
Room lighting can impact comfort from within.
You can fool yourself into feeling warm. British researchers discovered that the light in a room can affect comfort from within the body. People sitting in rooms under yellow light will feel warmer than those sitting in bathrooms under blue light, even when the temperature is low.
Castellani said t. “There are also ways to make our bodies adapt to the cold. The most popular way is called habit and you can experience it from season to season.”
In the summer, Castellani adds, your body changes a bit physiologically to cope with the heat, making it easier for you to sweat. At the same time, in the winter, the body will concentrate a large amount of blood to the exposed parts such as the face and hands to keep your skin warm. It takes your body a few days to adjust to the spring or fall, and that also affects the perception of cold.
“Similarly, if you work in cold conditions, over time you will also feel a little more comfortable. When you are constantly exposed to the cold, you get used to it. Of course, there are limits. . For many people, especially women, the temperature in office buildings is below the body limit they can feel comfortable,” Lichtenbelt said.
According to Castellani, there are ways to make your body more tolerant of the cold, but you need to tolerate the mild cold. People who spend a lot of time outdoors and don’t wear a lot of thick clothing, including the Indigenous Australians, can withstand large drops of water on their skin and regulate their body temperature without shivering. The explanation for this phenomenon is that shaking for a long time consumes a lot of energy. By walking in low temperatures and staying active, your metabolism will be much lower.
Military researchers were able to work out fitness levels in the lab by asking multiple men to sit in cold water for 90 minutes a day, five days a week for five weeks wearing nothing but swimming trunks. “We often don’t tell them this is what they want to do. Partly because the training is so hard and partly because changes can yield rather vague results. In other words: the body. you can conserve heat better, but you still won’t stop fighting the cold “ .
Athlete Wim Hof, who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in his lap and ran a quarter of a race at the North Pole barefoot, has developed a training regimen that can help him endure extreme conditions, thanks to a combination of meditation, breathing exercises and ice exposure. This technique could help Hof block the cold by releasing cannabinoids (found in hemp and marijuana) and opioids (common in pain relievers) in the brain. The pain response ultimately leads to “reduced sensitivity to cold and increased feelings of euphoria and well-being,” according to the journal NeuroImage.
Ice is not what I need
There’s a much simpler way to make office buildings comfortable for the many people who work inside: reduce the amount of air conditioning.
Some places are beginning to find that dressing comfortably, especially for men, can make employees feel more comfortable. In Japan, the government launches a campaign called Cool Biz every summer, encouraging businesses to raise room temperatures and allowing employees to wear short-sleeved shirts instead of tie-in suits.
Meanwhile, Schiavon argues that installing fans in the office will save energy and help keep employees happy. Instead of using air conditioning during the summer, offices run fans until the temperature exceeds the specified level, the air conditioner will be turned on. Fans are more energy efficient and cheaper than air conditioners.
“Of course, everyone has a different threshold of warmth. No one temperature pleases everyone. We are all different and we need a more personalized environment,” Schiavon said.
Ideally, he says, each employee should have their own desk fan , allowing them to control the temperature in the vicinity. With winter coming, people can keep their workspaces warm by using heated chairs or electric rugs under their feet.
There are many offices where each employee has their own fan. That’s why Schiavon is working on smart fans for common spaces. Anyone in the office can give feedback by sending a command to indicate whether they feel hot or cold, and the fan system will take that into account when “deciding” on shared fan speeds. Air conditioning systems often don’t have this feature, says Schiavon.
Great! But my office has no intention of installing those special fans yet
Do not despair. Tolerating the uncomfortable sitting in the office during the summer is also beneficial for you. Scientists actually think that being cold has health benefits.
When it’s cold, our body starts to use brown fat. Unlike white fat, which stores energy, brown fat burns calories and releases heat. Newborns use brown fat to stay warm, but this trait disappears as we mature. In 2009, scientists, including Lichtenbelt, found that adults can retain some brown fat. Researchers try to figure out how to “consume” it in hopes of helping us lose weight.
Lichtenbelt reports that if our surroundings are outside our comfort zone, our metabolism increases and the cardiovascular system gets a workout. Basically, the body has to expend more energy to maintain the temperature in warm or cool places. In cold conditions, brown fat works, though more research is needed before we know how much brown fat has health benefits, Lichtenbelt said.
According to Lichtenbelt, we can still “benefit” from the cold without going to freezing cold offices. You don’t have to suffer. In fact, it is best practice to vary the temperature in office buildings throughout the day. This will allow us to benefit from both warm and cool conditions.
“And office workers aren’t the only ones benefiting, he said. After retirement, elderly people often spend a lot of time in rooms where the temperature doesn’t vary much. This can really make it harder for the elderly to spend a lot of time in a room where the temperature isn’t much different. Their bodies are less elastic. It’s because the environment in the room is so stable, you become fragile,” added Lichtenbelt.
Lichtenbelt began research into the range of temperatures that would be most beneficial to employees and the elderly. “This depends on the local climate. It is difficult to give general guidelines, especially in countries with many different climates.”
All in all, it will take some time before we see the most efficient and energy-efficient temperatures for office buildings.