Unnecessary air conditioning

[SunshineHello]

Why is it suddenly a ‘thing’ for anywhere with air con to chill indoors to about 12 degrees, as soon as it’s mildly warm outdoors?

Shop staff all with jumpers on while it’s 25 degrees outside. Office workers spending their summers shivering at their desks under a jet of ice cold air.

Why?

In the UK?

@Offcom yes in the U.K.!

I have experienced this in Singapore, where you often need a jumper inside despite it being 35 degrees outdoors.

But now it seems to have caught here too.

YANBU

Air conditioning cold is a special kind of cold which can make you feel chilled to the absolute bones.

Its done so as to maintain a temperature that’s more comfortable for men, who are comfortable at a colder temperature than women (in general).

eh ? and who issued the directive that aircon must be set to “man temperature” ?

I don't get the "suddenly a thing" part. I remember cool air conditioned shops from when I was a child and I've worked in air conditioned offices all my adult life, and I'm mid 40s. (UK)
Also nowhere cools to 12 degrees do they, unless it's a walk in fridge! Ityf it's 18 or 19 which is lovely.
Yabu if you think 25+ degrees indoors is acceptable. It's boiling.

Air-conditioning in shops/offices was normal when I was growing up thirty years ago.

I'd much rather work in a jumper than have to rush about sweating my arse off.

Wtf men are more comfortable colder! Since when?

An aircon engineer told me the ideal aircon temp is 22 for men and 23 for women.

You're under 50, then?

It's not for the benefit of men.

Oh god, our work meeting rooms are like this. On Thursday I was wearing a short sleeved mid calf dress, sandals and a light cotton cardigan - perfectly normal attire for a very mild September day (it was about 23 degrees in London pleasantly warm but hardly a crippling heatwave) , but our air conditioning was set to "artic blast". It was unbearable.

This isn't a particularly new thing, but it's still stupid.

Some trains I get are awful for it. You need to take a jumper even on a really hot day!

I was on holiday in southern Europe in July, aircon in the flat was nice but I only needed it on for a few minutes a day!

I am menopausal so I understand what the oh so clever posters are referring to.

Women needing a warmer temperature and feeling cold more easily is an established thing. The air con thing is well known. Look it up.

It is. Look it up.

I personally love freezing cold air conditioning (yes, I am a woman). Probably because I am hopeless in the heat, so… can I get a job in your office pls

But seriously, it’s such an emotional topic and yet I never see it up for discussion in workplaces (beyond complaints about heat/cooling not working), and it probably should be.

Have heard a story about a whole office being kept freezing because one male exec liked it to be cold. Such a gross attitude

It’s also such a huge waste of energy use. There is a happy medium between being frozen and being melting.

Op I'm with you. Constant battles in our office over the aircon temperature. And yes men want it cooler than women.

Many years ago I was working in an office with freezing 🥶 aircon. I resorted to my normal - bring in a heater - I'm merrily working away, fan heater keeping my feet warm.
I eventually twigged the guy beside me was sweating like a pig, he was oblious to the fan heater under the desk!

So not true. I die in the heat, as do many of my friends and it's our other (male) halves that tolerate it.
When I am indoors the beautiful ac is ramped up.
Not every thing is about men ruling it over women.

Air conditioning bloke told us to set out home to 18 degrees.

There may be men and women working in the office/school/factory but the caretaker with his finger on the switch is invariably male.

I’d love the option for air conditioning! Teaching in a room with 30 bodies and windows that barely open is pretty grim!

I wish my office had air conditioning.

Yes, but as far as Singapore goes, it’s very hot all year around, and the perk of being able to go to a shopping center is to cool off, if you don’t have AC at home and you just have a fan, it’s not always easy. A lot of people in the UK complain that it gets too hot when it’s around that temperature, it is hot for the people who lived there all year around.

Yanbu. We need air con for about a fortnight in this country every summer.
We had blankets in our office last week and had to keep drinking hot drinks because some idiot in another office wanted air con on.

That seems odd to me. I'm in Australia where it regularly goes up around 38 in the summer, and everyone has air con. The manufacturers say to set it at 24 for comfort and economy. I leave it on 24 most of the summer and it's just right for everyone. 18 would be ridiculously cold .

There's quite a bit of research about temperatures and yes men and boys concentrate better in cooler temperatures than women and girls. I think it's 19 and 22 degrees. Traditionally men wore suits so the cooler temp was to compensate for that.