After considering factors like size, weight, age, type of work and sex, the researchers said that there were many reasons as to why women think that their office environment is chillier in comparison to men working with them. Many office workers spend the majority of their days sitting at desks, and it might be beneficial if their bodies burn a few calories to keep warm or stay cool, Kingma said.
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A study found that the neutral temperature for Japanese women was 25.2 °C, whereas it was 3.1 °C lower for European and North American men under the same conditions. The office temperature is set according to formulas aimed to optimize employees’ “thermal comfort”, which is based on the air temperature, radiant temperature, humidity, air speed and clothing worn.
Others have shown that women feel comfortable with room temperatures of around 77°F, compared with men’s preference for less than 72°F.
The study, which was published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, determined that most office buildings adjust their temperatures based on a decades-old formulas set to the metabolic rates of men, reportedly the resting metabolic rate of a 40-year-old man weighing 154 pounds.
While women are, indeed, constantly betrayed by their cleavages, there are women who attempt to cover their décolletages (I am doing so now, in the name of science) only to find themselves freezing, still. Women, by and large, have lower metabolisms; when Kingma and van Marken Lichtenbelt had 16 women perform office tasks in a sealed chamber – to measure metabolic proxies like breathing – they found the industry standards were overcooling for these women by nearly a third. The researchers were looking at the “gender-discriminating bias in thermal comfort” largely to prove that buildings are wasting energy keeping things too cold.
Body heat production is directly linked to metabolic rates, which refer to how much energy your body requires to maintain its physical functions.
The current standards for office settings assume a metabolic rate that produces a resting heat of 60 to 70 watts per square meter. Their skin temperature was measured on their hands and abdomen.
Overall, more women than men reported that the office was too cold (58 versus 27).
These standards are deployed across both Europe and the U.S., Boris Kingma, a lead researcher of the report, told CNBC via email. Metabolic rate also lowered with increasing age. Conversely, those who are overweight and women in menopause would prefer it colder. Women’s clothing, which often is more lightweight, also may play a part. But now you have someone to blame for looking so ridiculous: men.
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In most buildings, the temperature is not arbitrarily chosen by the office manager but actually based on a formula known as the Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied (PPD). Here’s the scientific proof.
