In any, even the most peaceful office, a fight can suddenly flare up around the air conditioner. The situation is familiar: men are in favor of coolness, frozen women demand to be turned off. But only now researchers have figured out the reason for this "sexual dimorphism".
The blame for everything is the Dutch scientist Povl Ole Fanger, a renowned expert in research on human thermoregulation and temperature in the workplace. It was he who, in the 1960s, substantiated the optimal temperature level in the office (21 ° C), which formed the basis of state standards - and is still used today. The bureaucracy is also to blame for not changing these standards: a typical office worker half a century ago was a restless man in a vest suit, and this man was always hot.
Physiology is to blame: everyone knows that metabolic processes in the male body proceed a little faster than in the female, which means that this body emits more heat per unit of energy. Moreover, the blood vessels of women react more actively to changes in temperature, and in response to even a moderate decrease in temperature, they sharply narrow, retaining heat and forcing a woman to experience the cold. The anatomy is also to blame, because of which women are on average smaller than men, which means that they have more surface per unit volume, which accelerates heat exchange with the environment.
Once we know who is to blame for the problem, we must make him change. Ole Fanger's fellow countrymen, scientists from the University of Maastricht headed by Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt, who are well aware of all these troubles, propose to do this. “When you walk into a conference hall, it's always cold,” she says. - It feels like winter winds are blowing. So even if it's hot outside, going to a meeting, I definitely take a warm sweater with me."
The scientist proposes to update Ole Fanger's model and find a temperature regime that would be comfortable for both halves of humanity - at least for as much of it as possible. After monitoring the body and skin temperature of women working in the office, they performed the necessary calculations and supplemented the models used in the 1960s with this information. The new officially comfortable temperature is 24 ° C, it has even been published. And for the final confirmation of their position, the authors emphasize that such a temperature regime will help save energy.
However, it is difficult to say how quickly this idea will spread in our sexist society. British physiologist George Havenith, commenting on the proposal of his colleagues, said (apparently with a shrug): “We usually get by with open windows, or turn on the fan. And more often we just put on light shirts."