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Spain bans setting the AC below 27 degrees Celsius

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Re: Spain bans setting the AC below 27 degrees Celsius

#11

Post by Glawen »

mathgladiator wrote: post #5

For whatever reason, I don't comprehend Celsius intuitively. I convert that to Fahrenheit and see 80.6 degrees. Is Spain dry? Or humid? I would revolt as I much prefer cold.

You better understand Celsius when you use body thermometer. Normal body temperature is 37, 38 is a light fever, 40 is severe fever. So 27 is temperature of a pleasant summer day, not too hot not too cold.

Re: Spain bans setting the AC below 27 degrees Celsius

#12

Post by cedilla »

mathgladiator wrote: post #5

For whatever reason, I don't comprehend Celsius intuitively. I convert that to Fahrenheit and see 80.6 degrees. Is Spain dry? Or humid? I would revolt as I much prefer cold.

The reason is simply familiarity. If you had lived your whole life with an inverted, nonlinear temperature scale that has freezing water at 53 degree, body temperature at 20 and boiling water at 0 degree you would also find that intuitive.

Re: Spain bans setting the AC below 27 degrees Celsius

#13

Post by stefandesu »

I've never understood why (in some countries) public places are so cooled down in the summer and so heated up in the winter. In Japan, in the summer they put the ACs to what feels like 16ºC, so whenever you go from outdoor (very hot and humid) to indoor, you feel like you'll freeze (because you're dressed for 30ºC). In the winter, they put the ACs to 25ºC, so you move from outdoor to indoor, it's extremely hot and sticky (as you're dressed for 5ºC). Why not meet in the middle and use 21ºC or something all year round? (Or save energy and just change the temperature a little to make it a bit more bearable.)

Re: Spain bans setting the AC below 27 degrees Celsius

#14

Post by midasz »

mathgladiator wrote: post #5

For whatever reason, I don't comprehend Celsius intuitively. I convert that to Fahrenheit and see 80.6 degrees. Is Spain dry? Or humid? I would revolt as I much prefer cold.

Probably because you didn't grow up with Celcius. Celcius makes sense because it's based on water, 0 is freezing and 100 is boiling. What's Fahrenheit based on? Anything we use in our daily lives?

Re: Spain bans setting the AC below 27 degrees Celsius

#15

Post by bearmode »

public_defender wrote: post #3

I guess the "don't wear ties" comment was meant to be less serious, but men's business clothing has driven a lot of office thermostats to 60⁰F over the course of my experience. Men in suits and ties are comfortable at the approximate temperature of a meat locker, while everyone else is freezing and energy is wasted. If the PM were serious about trendsetting to reduce energy use, he would ban the suit jacket and encou…

It's not just that, it's also that men have higher skin temps than women. If a man and woman were wearing the exact same clothes, in the exact same room, the man would still almost certainly be feeling warmer.

Re: Spain bans setting the AC below 27 degrees Celsius

#16

Post by rockinghigh »

Leherenn wrote: post #8
mathgladiator wrote: post #5

For whatever reason, I don't comprehend Celsius intuitively. I convert that to Fahrenheit and see 80.6 degrees. Is Spain dry? Or humid? I would revolt as I much prefer cold.

Dry. Most of Europe is, except on rare occasions.

Norther Spain is quite humid.

Re: Spain bans setting the AC below 27 degrees Celsius

#17

Post by t_mann »

mathgladiator wrote: post #5

For whatever reason, I don't comprehend Celsius intuitively. I convert that to Fahrenheit and see 80.6 degrees. Is Spain dry? Or humid? I would revolt as I much prefer cold.

Celsius was based on scientific ideas and works great for describing scientific processes. Fahrenheit was based on everyday weather experience and works great for describing that. They're of course equivalent, and it would be better if the world could agree on one standard (not just for temp, cough cough, metric system).

Re: Spain bans setting the AC below 27 degrees Celsius

#18

Post by cko »

stefandesu wrote: post #13

I've never understood why (in some countries) public places are so cooled down in the summer and so heated up in the winter. In Japan, in the summer they put the ACs to what feels like 16ºC, so whenever you go from outdoor (very hot and humid) to indoor, you feel like you'll freeze (because you're dressed for 30ºC). In the winter, they put the ACs to 25ºC, so you move from outdoor to indoor, it's extremely hot and st…

I saw a video about Hong Kong where colder shopping malls are considered more upscale. Waste is a Veblen good in that context, I guess.

Re: Spain bans setting the AC below 27 degrees Celsius

#19

Post by manuelabeledo »

For context, A/C in public places is not as prevalent as in the US. In some large retailers, e.g. El Corte Ingles, it's set to ~24 degrees Celsius, quite lower than outdoors, especially in the larger cities of Central, Southern, and Mediterranean Spain. It feels really cold.

Anyway, the odd voice here is the one from the president of the Madrid region, who went on Twitter to say that they won't comply, mostly not because of the A/C, but another bit that requires stores to shut off their lights when they are closed, effectively keeping their showcases in the dark at night.

Personally, it sounds like the stupidest hill to die on.

Re: Spain bans setting the AC below 27 degrees Celsius

#20

Post by pvaldes »

mathgladiator wrote: post #5

For whatever reason, I don't comprehend Celsius intuitively. I convert that to Fahrenheit and see 80.6 degrees. Is Spain dry? Or humid? I would revolt as I much prefer cold.

> Is Spain dry? Or humid?

Both. Spain is one of the European countries with most diverse ecosystems. The local weather ranges from "tropical Mexico" to "Siberian winter". We have deserts and relic cloud rainforests. The inner core is dry and hot (not much unlike US pairies), the North is like Ireland and the West would be similar to California. Canary Islands are subtropical.

Currently most big cities are reaching over the 104ºF (40ºC). A pretty hot year. Environmental crimes made it much worse, so we are having a dry year also.

(Stupid note for myself: It seems that all the years with big wars are extra hot. Somebody should study how all this extra energy released locally by bombs and missiles interact with the weather models).

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