Why do people think being cold is automatically more an issue than being too hot?

[MotorGreenGrass]

I started a thread about the heating and my lodger.

Automatically people state they can’t be cold…. At the same time, neither can I be too hot?

So surely a consensus can be meet?

I'd much rather have the heat. I find having to wear multiple layers of clothes uncomfortable and am 1 of those who, , would much rather wear t-shirts all year round at home.

I would much rather bee too cold than too hot. You can add layers and hot water bottles. You can't walk about with a lodger in your wangers with an ice pack tucked into your bra.

If you're too cold you can (for instance) put on an extra layer of clothing, thicker socks, make a hot drink.

If you're too hot then nudity is only rarely a workable solution...

I think I'd actually be sick in a house that was 24 degrees. Heating doesn't create comfortable heat, not like the sun. It's just sicky, I get car sick if the windows are up, I need air and warm houses just seem airless and claustrophobic.

I prefer being cold as I can warm up I detest being hot as I can't cool down and it triggers migraines.

DH and I have this debate often. I'm a very cold person and like it to be toasty, he overheats easily and prefers the house to be cool.

He always says to me 'You can always put a jumper on, I cant exactly take my skin off' when we disagree over the heating being on

So yeah for me being cold is worse but it might be because I'm hardly ever too hot it feels less of an issue.

Not sure you're best qualified to give heating advice to others op if your lodger tells you your house is cold.

As others have said the UK is a temperate climate that edges towards cooler temperatures (18 degrees or lower) for most of the year. Therefore when people say they're hot they're expressing a slight personal preference most of the time.
They're not talking about the kind of heat that leads to dehydration or changes to actual body temperature. Whereas when people say they're cold they very likely are experiencing cold temperatures because that's fairly normal in the UK.

Also a lot of offices and homes aren't very well set up so if the temperature drops it isn't always easy to raise it again. Eg I used to work with a guy who cycled in to work so he was warm when he arrived and the first thing he'd do was open a window. But the heating in our shitly built uninsulated office didn't come on until the evening, so once this bellend cooled it down it just stayed cold, and then got a bit colder come 3pm.

Obviously that's a bit of a niche example but there are plenty of buildings with poor insulation and poor construction in the UK and it can be a problem getting them warm.

Its not, but I hate being cold, I get cold easily, while my DS wonders around our house in shorts, I am sitting there with 6 layers on.

We have to compromise though, because otherwise its unfair on one or another, but its a thin line

I live in shorts and a t shirt when I visit my father's. My flat is around 19 degrees without heating and I v rarely put it on.

Its not, but I hate being cold, I get cold easily, while my DS wonders around our house in shorts, I am sitting there with 6 layers on.

I’m sitting here with a thick winter onesie on, two pairs of thick bed socks and I’m also wearing my dressing gown and I still feel cold.

My husband is lying on the couch in just a pair of shorts.

We both think the other is mad

I'm always too warm, and find it so uncomfortable. I hate it, I'd rather be cooler with the ability to put layers on that hot all the time.
My DH is forever closing windows I've opened!

Your other thread states your lodger is too cold. You should just open a window in your room if you are too hot. Or wear something cooling like a t shirt

@PaddlingLikeADuck

There is nothing worse than being cold!!

If it is cold, I layer up. I got through a -10°C night in a tent by going into my sleeping bag fully dressed (hat, gloves, the lot).

If it's too hot on the other hand, once you've stripped off all layers and opened a window (wasteful if you're too hot due to the heating being on), there's not a lot left you can do.

I’m another who would rather be too hot than too cold. Being cold makes me tired and zaps all my energy no matter how many layers I’m wearing.
I function a lot better in general in the summer months.

Being hot is far better than cold and easily remedied by taking off layers, opening a window, going outside (unless it's the annual 4 day heatwave)

Being cold means a relentlessly dripping nose that is not solved by extremities. I've got relatives that really should take up living in an igloo and there comes a point where no amount of extra clothing works because there is no heat to trap. Suddenly jumping up to do some star jumps to warm the muscles up and get the circulation going to the extremities doesn't tend to go down to well in the middle of a social gathering.
These relatives start whinging about the heat when the weather finally gets to a pleasant 21⁰C.

And no, I'm not hanging around the house in a t-shirt all winter. I'll wear long sleeves, thick socks, jumpers, gilets, long johns, but if the lounge is below 18⁰C actual temperature on the thermometer, then it's too cold for comfort and the nose dripping starts. 18⁰C is fine for moving, light housework.

It's a constant source of angst in our house.

I'm always hot, DH & DS always 'freezing'. I wear as few clothes as I possibly can and they are in jumpers etc.

The temperature indoors today is showing as 21°. That is warmer than the average summer day in the UK. If they were outdoors at that temperature they would be wearing shorts and t shirts and moaning about being warm, so how the hell can they be cold indoors? It makes no sense to met at all.

When I'm home alone I don't have any heating on, regardless of the weather, and there is always a window open. When they are home too I have a fan on (directed at me) all the time.

When they are home without me they put the thermostat up to 22°, keep all windows closed and still wear a jumper 🙄

Bizzare

I can’t get cold, I literally cannot move if I get too cold, my skin tears, I bleed and as I’m hyper mobile my joints get super painful and my fibro becomes much worse!
When I’m too hot I feel a bit sick and tired but I find it’s easier to cool down than it is to warm up.

I think it depends on the actual temperature.
If the room is between about 18 and 22, I'd say it's down to the person uncomfortable in that temperature to adjust their clothing.

If it's 16 and people are wearning jumpers and saying it's cold, the temperature needs to go up.
If it's 26, the heating needs to go off if someone is too hot.

• makes no sense to me

I think this comes down to peoples own body temperatures in terms of whether they cope better being hot or cold. Personally I much prefer being too hot to being too cold, I have lived and worked in the tropics in 40+C heat without air-con and whilst being too hot wasn’t comfortable I could cope with it. Being too cold on the other hand I find really hard to just get on and ignore and unfortunately just layering up often doesn’t cause my body to warm up, in winter I seem to feel the coldness down to my bones and there is a limit to how many layers you can wear. For me it is my feet, hands and nose which really get cold and it’s not really realistic to be wearing gloves and a scarf over the face etc indoors! I do layer up at home (today I’m lounging in pjs, a long sleeved top, a thin woollen jumper, another jumper and a hoodie under a fleece onesie and then have an oodie type blanket-hoody on top, I’m wearing thick wool socks with sheepskin slippers and am cuddled under 2 blankets with 2 hot water bottles. I couldn’t be doing much more to feel warm!) and I still need the temperature set to 22+ degrees to feel comfortable when I’m sedentary for more than about 10 minutes. I have low blood pressure and circulation and I just feel the cold and have done all my life.

I also disagree with those saying if you’re too hot there’s nothing you can do, of course there is! Have a cold drink, remove a layer or change into something cooler, take a cold shower and when you get out leave your hair wet, sit with a fan directed at you, sit with something cold (Eg: hot water bottle filled with cold water, ice pack) or with your feet in cold water etc.

There does need to be a happy medium and obviously nobody should be complaining it’s hot in a T-shirt and shorts, putting a jumper on is reasonable but equally being sat indoors in a coat, hat, gloves and scarf isn’t realistic. I find often when people say they’re too hot in an indoor environment they are still wearing socks and jeans rather than shorts and flip flops for example and aren’t using a fan or anything to help cool them.

Normal winter indoor clothing for me if money was not an issue would be jeans, top, jumper, and warm socks. So easy to add coat and boots to go out. If people like different temperatures then it's fair to expect a cold person to wear three layers and slippers and a warm person to wear just jeans and top. If the differences are greater than that it would be difficult to live together. Being too hot is just as bad as being too cold and it's a pain if you have to layer up everytime you want to leave the house.

Being too hot is worse because you can’t do much to cool down. There’s always another layer you can put on in the cold, it’s just that in this country it’s cold more often than it’s hot.

I live for the day someone invents a reverse heated throw, like a chiller blanket. That would be bliss when it’s hot and humid in the summer.

Different likes for different folks. I feel absolutely terrible when the temperature goes above 25c. Unwell terrible. Cant sleep. Lethargic even if I have managed to sleep. In the sun, in the shade I feel ill. And theres pretty much nothing I can do to relieve it except wait for the heatwave to end.
When its cold however.......... well at least then I can find a blanket/duvet, hot drink, hot water bottle.

I find often when people say they’re too hot in an indoor environment they are still wearing socks and jeans rather than shorts and flip flops for example and aren’t using a fan or anything to help cool them.
I don't think it's reasonable to have to wear less than jeans, t-shirt, barefoot inside in winter, unless you wear shorts outside in winter too.

I can’t cope with being too hot, I feel physically ill. Summer is awful, I’d move to the arctic circle if it was a choice.