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What temperature do you keep your thermostat at?
(lemmy.zip)
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this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2023
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I have been involved in many of these types of discussions, and I'm convinced that we are not experiencing the same temperatures when we set our thermostats to the same temperature. If I set mine any lower than 77°F, I would freeze to death. But many people here set theirs to below 70°F.
I have a few hypotheses.
Apparently AC units can really only make the temperature about 20-25°F degrees colder than the outside ambient temperature. It is over 100°F in my area almost every day from June to mid September, so any temperature below about 78°F just means your AC is on 100% of the time. This is removing moisture from the air, making it feel colder.
My thermostat is right next to my garage door, which is not insulated. This is probably where the majority of heat enters the house. So the thermostat thinks it is warmer than it is. Other people might be in similar or opposite situations and need to set their thermostats to account for that.
People's AC units are not actually cooling anywhere near those temperatures. The unit is just on 100% of the time at those temperatures, and they could realistically increase the temperature a great deal and get the same results.
Humidity.
Some people's AC units/thermometers just suck. 65°F on their unit actually gets the space to the same temperature as 75°F on my unit.
Yeah, those are all good points and certainly factor in. There are objective studies about human comfort preferences used for building design. I expect OPs question is a roundabout way to ultimately ask about comfort preferences.
Studies done on temperature preferences are also biased (like medicine studies or calorie recommendations). Office building studies were based largely on the preferences of white men. Not even accounting for individual preferences someone being in a different "category" (i.e. gender) may also influence at what temperature they are most comfortable.