I’d like to know more about differences in “normal living conditions” from one part of the world to another. What do you consider normal for your area, that another area’s people would not?
I thought I’d start out with one that has evoked considerable battles within small groups, but overall hasn’t really much been talked about. I’d like to know what you consider to be a normal, everyday nice indoor temperature, and what range do you consider too cold and/or too hot. (Please, for inclusion, use both °f and °c and your location.)
I’m in Calgary, Alberta, Canada (51° N, 114° W). I’m at about 3,000 feet above sea level, on a high and dry prairie just an arms reach away from the Rocky Mountains. Normal indoor temp is 21°C (70°F). Being a northerner with thick blood, anything above 25°C (77°F) is too warm. -40°C (-40°F) is a bit chilly, I might call that “too cold”. We don’t get those temps very often. -30°C(-22°F) is tolerable.
My indoor temperature is usually not far from the outdoor temperature. I enjoy a wide variance of indoor temperature, but am utterly intolerant of temperatures over 85°F (30°C) or under 43°F (6°C) (which is “freezing cold” in my book). We don’t have AC, and only use the heat on particularly cold mornings.
I am happy if the house is between 64°F (18°C) and 80°F (27°C). It’s got to get below 60°F (16°C) before I turn the heat on.
A nice indoor temperature for me is 75F. And up. I am chilly below that. No upper limit, but the people I live with and the people I work with have kind of strict ones. My sweaters somehow are never out of season.
In the winter, given winter clothing, 68F is my bottom line. In my office though it’s often hotter in the winter.
Location: Denver. Sorry, I’ve lost the formula for C.
Once the temperature hits 20C (68F) the fans get turned on and bedding is reduced to just a sheet. 25C (77F) sees me running shirts under the shower and wearing them, still wet, in front of the fan and when the temperature starts hitting 30C (86F), I contemplate moving to the Artic circle. 35C (95F)+ and suicide becomes an option.
Lower than 5C (41F) is chilly, but that’s why I have slippers and quilts.
Twenty years ago comfortable was 70F in summer and 62F in winter.
Now comfortable is 75F in summer and 80F in winter. Less in the winter and every joint kills me. I keep the room I’m in closed and the computer heat with my body heat raises the room 10F in temperature. The little extra it takes to keep one room warmer, would be worth supplementing the heat to have less pain. This is one of the big reasons old people move to Florida and other southern states.
This thread makes me even more anxious that I haven’t had time to do snow blower repairs, and it was running badly last year after the heavy workout it got.
I live just north of the polar circle and we enjoy a healthy 20 C indoors at work. At home its usually around 19 C indoors.
Just a few days ago I was lecturing in one of the smaller classrooms where the temperatureknob on the wall was turned up to max - it was 27 C in the room and I was incidently lecturing about tropical rainforests! That was definitively too hot indoors.
Outside it is around 10-12 C right now, which means a jacket or a sweater is appropriate (in the morning when I walk to work it can be as cold as 2-5 C now). In winter its anything from less than -10C to +5 C, but somehow nature decided that this area needs a constant wind, so walking outside without a windstopper will chill you to the bone in a minute.
In summer its anything from 12 to 28 C.
Location: the buoyant hub of northern Norway - Bodø
We keep our thermostat at 72F in summer and 68F in winter.
I grew up in New Hampshire with no air conditioning and a wood stove for heat. During the summer the house was whatever temperature the house was. During the winter temperatures would be anywhere from upper 70s to 80s (when we were home and the stove was going) to well below freezing (when we got up in the morning and got home at night). I still have difficulty sleeping at night in climate controlled conditions.
I live in Phoenix. My thermostat is currently set at 83F. I used to keep it much lower, but for my small condo when the summer bills reached three figures, I made the decision to live with the bump in temperature. I have seen a $40/month cost savings. I also have ceiling fans in the living room and bedroom that are on constantly.
In the winter I will not turn on the heat (I generally hate forced heat) unless the temp dips into, say, the 30s. Even then, I prefer to bundle up and sleep with more blankies than turn the heat on.
I’m sorry. I’m an ignorant American who can’t be buggered to do the Celsius calculations this early in the morning!
Comfortable room temperature = 21C (70F).
Comfortable sleeping temperature = 15-18C (59-65F) .
Anything above 25C (77F) and I start sweating. Above 28C (82F) and I become uncomfortable, unless it’s dry. 35C (95F) and humid is one definition of hell.
No problem! Google can handle all sorts of unit conversions that way. It has no problem with “125 canadian cents per litre in US cints per US gallon” (445.25) and even catches the spelling error! (“Did you mean ‘125 canadian cents per litre in US cents per US gallon’?”)
17ºC in the house in the daytime and nighttime, 19ºC when we’re up and active in the house (mornings and evenings) in winter. Summertime, we’re whatever temperature it gets to (no AC). 21ºC inside is much too hot for us - it’s a running joke in our family how cold we keep our house, but it isn’t just to save money on heating - we don’t like too much heat inside.
Another, less anecdotal, data point: thermostats in Japanese government buildings are set at 28°C, to address global warming by using less AC (I think this is still true).
