Dear Phil and All on 2003-12-24 09.04, Phil Chernack at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> My guess is that people outside of the U.S. and Canada are used to cooler > temps indoors in the winter and warmer ones in the summer as the cost of > heating and cooling is greater and therefore, the differences are not really > noticeable. Sometimes, especially with digital thermostats, clicking the heat > up a degree (F or C) is enough to cycle the heat on and thus, make the house > feel warmer. I, for one, don't have a problem with the magnitude of change in > 1 degree C. My thermostat is set for 21 degrees during the day and 17 at night > ( I work at home). I find these temperatures to be totally suitable for my > tastes. I also have not received any complaints from visitors. I wonder if I > will feel the same way in a couple of weeks when my windows are replaced. > Where I worked at CSIRO Textile and Fibre Technology, they had two 'climate chambers' that had the capacity to rapidly change both temperature and humidity from Antarctic to desert conditions via tropical rainforests in a matter of seconds. Using these climate chambers they tested a lot of people for their sensitivity to 'temperature', but also more importantly for their sensitivity to 'temperature change'. They found that people are far more sensitive to temperature change than they are to actual temperature. To use your example, 'clicking the heat up a degree (F or C) is enough to cycle the heat on and thus, make the house feel warmer', suggests to me that you have changed the conditions of your personal experiment from one in which you are experiencing a 'temperature' to one in which you are experiencing a 'temperature change'. I suspect that you are like most others, and that you are more sensitive to temperature change than you realise. At our house this issue is relatively constant as we change seasons. My wife is very sensitive to 'temperature change' but I am less so. This leads to continual discussion as to whether a room is too cold or too warm � to my wife it doesn't matter much (within the normal range) about the current value of the temperature, as long as it is changing in the right direction � down in summer and up in winter. On the other hand, I am trying to set a constant temperature that will save the most energy (how boringly pragmatic I hear you say). When my mother-in -law lived with us in her mid nineties she was even more sensitive to temperature change, and had little idea of a level temperature set by a thermostat. Off the topic slightly, the CSIRO climate chambers were used extensively to investigate the microclimate between the skin and the garments worn by elite athletes to provide garments that would help to provide conditions to enhance their performance. I own a few of these garments, but alas, after a wait of five years, I am yet to notice any marked improvement in my athletic performance � maybe it was something I ate! Cheers, Pat Naughtin LCAMS Geelong, Australia --
