How America Fell in Love with Crazy Amounts of Air Conditioning

I felt that article was a little one sided. It's not just that men are deciding to wear the same thing all year long. It's expected of us. I worked in a government office where we were required to wear a suit and tie every day. And this was in FL. I would have loved to worn shorts or something lighter.

I've also never understood why women just don't dress for the indoor climate. If men are expected to dress like that then why can't the women put on another layer.

There's only so many layers I can take off and stay in the dress code.

Cooler offices is always better. You can bundle up when it's cold, but you can't really strip down much in an office when it's too hot.

My vote is always for the cold.

I work in an office where almost nobody wears a suit but the A/C is still way too cold. Even the men sometimes bring extra layers to keep warm with.

I think at this point this low temperature has less to do with patriarchy and more to do with tradition---the thermostat is set to 68 because that's what thermostats are set to. Maybe a few well-articulated complaints to the facilities people could make a difference? Who doesn't want to be able to claim they saved the company $X million in energy costs?

Of course, the reverse is often an issue in the winter: the heat is up way too high. We've essentially reversed the seasons inside our buildings!

Article doesn't discuss the awful energy efficiency of modern office buildings. I've experienced it first hand. Roof is uninsulated, AC return thru ceiling, poorly insulated fresh air ducts, few thermostats, no ability to have different zones.

In summer anything near windows is sweltering, but the core of the building is too cool. In winter the poorly insulated fresh air ducts blast residual cold air when the heating kicks on, and the areas near windows are hard to keep warm.

Bah. Climate control is primitive, in both offices and houses. I dunno, maybe LEED is a solution, but I have no first-hand experience with it.