Comfortable house temps?

[Croneathome]

This subject has cropped up quite a bit these past few days. Here’s the thing I don’t understand. Where I live (not UK), summer temps can be above 30°C for a couple of months (highest temp I’ve personally experienced is 37°C, in the shade). In the summer, I feel anxious and suffocated if the temp inside my house rises above 21°C. Meanwhile, winter temps can drop below 0°C for several weeks (lowest temp I’ve ever experienced here is -17°C). In winter, I feel cold unless I run the house at 23-24°C. Why the discrepancy? Plus, in summer I feel hot at 21°C in the house when wearing shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt, but in winter at the exact same temperature I feel cold in joggers, thermals and sweats. Why?

The temperature recorded by your thermostat thermometer is not the temperature everywhere in your house. Eg, I have my living room thermostat set to 18 or 18.5 in the winter. But in my usual chair near to a radiator, the temperature is probably more than that - unless the weather is very cold. I actually get too warm in the armchair and I’d guess if I had a thermometer just there, it would be reading around 21 -22

My armchair is also next to an exterior north facing wall, by a window. When the weather is very cold, there’s a cold draught through the window which reduces the heat from the radiator in that particular spot. These are just examples to show how the temperature could vary in different places even in one room. The humidity of the air probably affects how warm or cold you feel as well.