One thing I’ve noticed in my travels is the different attitude that various countries take towards interior heating and cooling.  I remember standing outside in Prague waiting for the tram.  It was cold (big surprise in Prague) so I had on several layers, including a thicky hooded sweatshirt and a long trenchcoat.  Despite the temperature, I was reasonably comfortable outside in the cold.

Image Credit: Dan Machold

The tram pulled up and opened its doors.  As I stepped on, I felt a wave of volcanic air sweep over me.  Inside the tram, it was an inferno.  Desperately, I started stripping off garments.  I struggled to remove my backpack, then my coat, then my sweatshirt.  Even the simple sweater I wore for work was too hot, so I took that off and sat in my t-shirt with a mountain of clothing in my lap.

Everything was tolerable for the fifteen minutes it took to get to my stop.  As I saw it approach, I started pulling on clothes as fast as I could.  I got about halfway dressed before I had to step out into the freezing air, which now felt twice as cold in comparison to the heated interior.

I’ve heard similar stories of ridiculous internal heating from Eastern Europe and Russia.

In South Korea.  I’ve seen thermostat routinely set to 25 C (77 F).  That’s damn near 80 degrees.  If it’s 77 degrees outside, I’m in short sleeves.

In winter, you expect people to be heavily dressed.  If you’re wearing a heavy sweater, you don’t need it to be boiling inside.  How about 20 C (68 F)?

The United States does it completely differently from most of the world.  Buildings are reasonably cool in the winter, which makes sense.  The main problem is that they get colder in the summer.  Some buildings seem to think of their air conditioners as technological marvels to be shown off.  Look how cold we can make it!

I remember once seeing a thermostat in high school set at 56 F (13 C) in May.  The legs on the girl next to me were turning blue.  I routinely bring a jacket or sweatshirt if I know I’m going to be in a heavily air conditioned environment like an office or a casino.

In summer, you expect people to be lightly dressed.  It doesn’t need to be 60 degrees (16 C) if people are already in shorts.  How about 75 F (24 C)?

At least countries like Spain and Italy are honest about it.  My apartment in Granada had neither heat nor air conditioning.  It got chilly in the winter, and you wore extra clothing.  It got hot in the summer and you opened the windows, stayed out of the sun and ate ice cream.  It wasn’t always comfortable, but at least it was predictable.

Although not everyone realizes, not every place in the world has heating and air conditioning.  For many people, the temperature inside is directly related to the temperature outside.

In the winter, you get used to the cold, and after a while, it’s not too bad (or so I’m told; I still hate winter).  In the summer, you get used to the heat.  You may sweat a little, but sweating in summer is not a catastrophe.  It is, in fact, normal.

Constantly changing from hot to cold and back actually makes it impossible for you body to grow accustomed to any one temperature.

(As a side note, how is it that people who go from a climate controlled house to a climate controlled car (in a garage, of course) to another parking garage and then to a climate controlled office will still complain about the weather?  Who cares what the weather is if you never go outside.  It could be raining burning sulphur and it wouldn’t make a difference.)

It may well be that I’m the only person consistenly uncomfortable with indoor heating and cooling.  Maybe everyone else likes to freeze in the summer and boil in the winter.  It just strikes me as odd that we expend massive amounts of energy to make buildings less comfortable.