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Comment by Grakel | Hacker News Reader

I would like to politely disagree; I think the point of having control of the temperature in your house is to have it be exactly the way you want it all the time. Now, it may take a while for the technology to catch up to that, but I think people would happily install a new system every few years, rather than lose that control. I personally like it cool enough to wear layers, regardless of what month it is.

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The issue is that many people do not realize the range to which they can acclimatize. And the acclimatization has varying degrees of value depending on the temperature differential to outdoors.

Eg: in Canada one can keep their home a few degrees cooler in the winter to save quite a bit of money. Same idea in hotter climates -- keeping it 75 instead of 70 is something one can acclimatize to, but has more value when the out door temperature is 100f vs 80f.

Overall I think it's just momentum. When I had a nest I used the dynamic range that said only cool if my place is over 78 and only heat if it's 68. Everything else, just roll with the ambient.

> The issue is that many people do not realize the range to which they can acclimatize.

Said acclimatization normally comes with downsides... When its hot, one might be less productive, feel less motivated to get stuff done, etc. It's pretty hard to measure that cost on a personal basis.

If you feel worse enough to be less productive, have you actually acclimatized?

I grew up in a house with air conditioning on all the time during the summer and thought that there was no way I could ever handle indoor temperatures of, say, 75. Then I spent a couple years in Arizona and wanted to save on AC costs in the summer, it took a while to get used to, but now an indoor temperature of 70 in the summer feels very cold to me.

As a kid in Phoenix my parents forbid setting the thermostat below 80, unless the humidity outside was low enough we could use the swamp cooler instead of the air conditioner.

Now I'm comfortable at 78 with a ceiling fan, to me 75 is cold and 70 would be freezing

Nahh, I just run hot. I've lived in a shared place where I don't control the thermostat and the person who does was loathe to let it go above 77 degrees. After months on end, I'd still get uncomfortably warm in such a temperature. On the other hand, I can sit comfortably in 55 degrees in short sleeves with wind. I also have very low body fat, so that's not the culprit either. Believe it or not, people have different preferences and optimal temperatures. I just wish everyone would err far to the side of cold: you can always put on a jacket; I can't keep taking clothing off.

Given the amount of environmental damage that energy production causes, expending huge amounts of energy to keep a large volume of space at a precise temperature rather than being a little flexible in how you dress seems pretty selfish to me. (If there was an appropriate Pigovian tax in place then I'd say fair enough, it's your money).

I wish the boss would accept that, workplace dress code means blasting the A/C all summer.

But what is the point of cooling your apartment to 65 Fahrenheit, when there's 90 degrees outside? In summer you would still wear shorts and t-shirt when inside, not sweatpants and hoodie, right? Setting AC to 75 degrees instead would be much more reasonable.

I wear shorts and t-shirt in sub-50 degree weather. 75 degrees is uncomfortable, even if I'm sitting doing nothing. Forget about doing things around the house at that temperature. At a certain point, I'd rather not even have AC at all than spend money to make it marginally more comfortable. (I also have huskies who don't like 75 degrees all that much.) On the flip side, I'm more than comfortable having the house be 55 degrees in the winter.

This is why it makes no sense to question how cold or warm other people like their home. I'm probably most comfortable around 25 degrees C (except perhaps when I'm exercising) - this is both during the summer and during the winter (and also during the day and night).

One difference, and part of the appeal, is how quickly you cool off after being outside for a long time.

Let's say it's 100°F, and you're outdoors for 2 hours. You feel lethargic and sapped of energy, and you look forward to going inside. When you finally do, you get a gigantic cold beverage, take off your shoes, plop down on the couch, and wait to feel normal again. It might take 30 minutes before you start to get there.

If it's 65°F inside, this process happens faster than if it's 75°F.

No doubt, the moment you get inside, you already feel better whether it's 65°F or 75°F because neither one is 100°F. But if you're alternating between inside and outside a lot, colder is still preferable.

Actually I find that if I'm acclimated to 90-degree temperatures it doesn't take very long for me to cool down in 75-degree temperatures at all. That's how acclimatization works, after all. You get used to the temperature and your body doesn't perceive it as hot or cold anymore.

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