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How do markets set the profit-maximizing level of air conditioning?
Ben M, a loyal MR reader, asks:
How does an office/shopping mall/theater decide how low to set its air conditioning? It seems like they've found a bizarre and expensive equilibrium where the "normal" indoor temperature is 63 degrees (in August) and everyone carries an extra long-sleeve layer to keep warm. How did it get this way, and is there some way to fix it?
This is perhaps the most common European complaint about visiting the United States, noting that they also don't like ice in drinks and think freely circulating cold air can kill small babies.
I believe the goal of high-powered AC is to give customers the feeling of luxury, the feeling that anything can be afforded, and the feeling that the store will spare no expense toward the end of comfort. I do not believe that either the average or the marginal buyer actually -- marketing effects aside -- prefers that temperatures be so low. This implies that low margin stores will set the AC at lower levels; does anyone know if this is true? For instance businesses offices should be somewhat warmer than Nordstrom or Macy's.
I find many movie theatres to be infernally cold, perhaps because they seek to be viewed as a respite from the summer heat. Appealing to dating moviegoers, who may wish to cuddle together, or be forced to do so, may be another reason.
And still I wonder why it is so loud in the pachinko parlors...
Posted by Tyler Cowen on May 29, 2008 at 07:05 AM in Economics | Permalink
Comments
What? You've never heard of fan deaths: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death
The article suggests it's just in Korea, but this "phenomenon" is known in China as well.
Posted by: Kevin Miller at May 29, 2008 6:14:55 AM
Those explanations might work for stores and malls, but just as bad if not worse are offices. I've never yet worked in an office where I didn't practically freeze coming in the front door in the summer. It's not as though there are customers to impress with the luxury; it's mostly just an annoyance.
Posted by: Grant Gould at May 29, 2008 6:28:19 AM
My experience in cinemas, shopping malls, etc, is that the emptier they are, the colder they are. So could one explanation to this be that the huge air conditioning units are scaled to handle the "peak" demand for cooling?
Posted by: Johan at May 29, 2008 6:33:08 AM
what I find inexplicable is when a work facility's AC is way off the mark - either blowing furiously when it's actually cold
out, or underperforming during a sudden heat wave - and the explanation I hear is that it's because the facility's temperature
computer lags in reacting to quick changes. But that's why I thought we use computers - to make the processing quicker and
reaction time finer? If you'd grown up in the greater DC area in the summer, riding your bike to a Super Giant so you could
loiter a few minutes in the refrigerated aisles is quite memorable. AC has truly made living in much of the South and South-
west bearable. And heatwaves are a top killer of many rural and inner-city folk. AC's the greatest invention next to the
automobile (in non-medical terms, of course).
Posted by: TomG at May 29, 2008 6:35:13 AM
Here's a theory. If you know ahead of time that a restaurant will be too warm for your taste then you might choose not to go, but if you know that it will be too cool then you'll just bring more clothes. And if you don't know about the temperature ahead of time, by the time you find out about it in the restaurant you're already locked in to the purchase. So restaurants are biased towards setting the temperature on the low end of the range of customers' preferences, since that chases fewer customers away. This implies that the thermostat will be set higher at places like retail stores where you're free to walk in and walk back out, because in that case a too-cool temperature can drive people away.
Posted by: Blar at May 29, 2008 7:09:23 AM
"Europea[s] ... think freely circulating cold air can kill small babies"
Is that your personal experience? I always thought that particular superstition applied only to Germans?! (Well, and Romanians, for some reason.) The first grave cultural difference I noticed when I first left Germany for a longer time (for the Netherlands) was that people would open wide the windows in the train even if (or, precisely because) that meant heavy air flows inside the coach - unimaginable in Germany.
As for AC, in those German trains that have it (most, nowadays), temperature is also always unusually low. In summer, I (and as I noticed, other people, too) would even bring an extra piece of clothes that would not be needed outside the train, because it would simply be too cold inside to sit there just with shorts and a t-shirt. This always struck me as odd, but I noticed knowing "If it gets a little warmer in here now, I can still take the second layer of clothing off" is a lot less worrying than knowing "if it gets a little warmer, I will start _sweating_". This can be interpreted as an early stage of the postulated "feeling of luxury", I guess.
Posted by: arne b at May 29, 2008 7:15:54 AM
I think Johan and Blar have hit the answer on the mark; the auditorium may be cold when it's 10% full, but that's much easier on the patrons than it being hot when it's 90% full (in part because it's easier to warm up than cool down, and in part because 90 hot people = 90 complaints max, while 10 cold people = 10 complaints max).
Plus HVAC systems are relatively slow when it comes to adjusting temperatures, particularly ones that are quiet enough to not disrupt the patrons. You could blast air into the auditorium (or restaurant), but I doubt patrons came to listen to the compressor, fans, and airflow.
Posted by: Chris Lawrence at May 29, 2008 7:22:28 AM
An interesting corollary: as a southerner, I find that most people north of the Mason-Dixon line set their heat way too high. I realize it's cold outside, but that's no reason to turn your house into a blast furnace. (I think most southerners prefer lower humidity to higher temperatures, all things being equal. Yankees in the winter combine too-low ambient humidity with too-high temperatures, and suddenly we're all scrambling for moisturizer.)
Posted by: Chris Lawrence at May 29, 2008 7:27:03 AM
Similar to the 10/90 comments, in most places I've spent significant time that has AC (i) the system equilibrium shifts drastically due to external humidity and sunlight (ii) there are always 'hot' and 'cold' parts of the building, specially where the interiors have been repartitioned so the AC/heater layout doesn't match the new room layout
I think there has to be a business in designing a control system that actually works consistently across conditions and interior locations -- think *lots* of cheap micro-sensors distributed around a building, with a computer using a decent model to control things, if only because of the likely savings in energy costs.
In fact the most comfortable building I've been was designed to self-circulate and used almost no A/C, but opened and closed vents at foot and ceiling level according to the weather, so you had the luxury of fresh air in moderate weather. I think this was designed somewhere in Scandinavia.
Posted by: jonm at May 29, 2008 8:11:47 AM
I'm surprised no one has mentioned obesity. In my experience, obese people invariably want the temperature a few degrees lower, since they sweat more readily.
Posted by: at May 29, 2008 8:37:14 AM
I just think it's why in US everyone eats so fast - you're all in danger of your food getting cold! My wife (American) loves the fact she can take her time over her meal and not worrying about it being stone cold in 3 minutes due to the AC....or maybe it's just the Vegas factor, keep you awake to gamble (or shop).
Posted by: Paul Holmes at May 29, 2008 8:49:50 AM
I have been told by at least two people that restaurants are kept cold for the comfort of the workers not the customers. The servers spend time in the kitchen and are also physically active, so they are warm.
To be more cynical, I'd hypothesize that restaurants want turnover. When you rush in the door, the A/C feels good. After an hour of dining and drinking cold beverages, the cold (and the noise and visual overstimulation) begin to irritate.
Posted by: Andrew at May 29, 2008 9:10:05 AM
I think that when I read this think freely circulating cold air can kill small babies it was the first time that I laughed out loud reading your blog.
Maybe because others can put a sweater on, control of the air conditioning goes to the person who wants it coldest.
BWT there is evidence that air conditioning contributes to weight gain.
Posted by: Floccina at May 29, 2008 9:13:19 AM
What does this say about the complainant?
Theory: Buildings have a thermal mass. They get hottest around 3-5. The theater pumps up the A/C earlier in the day when the crowds are thin so the theater will still be cool by the time the seats are packed.
Psycho T goes to matinees.
Posted by: Andrew at May 29, 2008 9:20:59 AM
Tyler is correct, at least for retail stores. The New York Times did an experiment on this a couple years ago where a reporter visited a selection of Manhattan retail stores and found a strong inverse relationship between the temperature and the prices of the store. Here's the link for anyone interested:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/26/fashion/sundaystyles/26air.html
Posted by: Old Greg at May 29, 2008 9:24:27 AM
Not sure why that last post turned up in italics. Whatever.
Tyler, is there anyway you could get John Nye to guest blog?
Posted by: Old Greg at May 29, 2008 9:26:06 AM
"infernally cold" ?????
As in colder than hotter than Hades
Posted by: Spotcash at May 29, 2008 9:28:24 AM
Stores in NYC have been criticized for blasting the A/C while having the front door wide open while we often are faced with brown outs in the summer. The blast of cold air coming out on the sidewalk while you walk past does feel good but it doesn't really have the intended affect of getting me to come in the store. But it must work if they are willing to spend the money.
I agree that obesity is part of the problem. I had a fat roommate once that kept turning the temperature in our apartment down to 65 which I would then proceed to turn up to 75. He did seem to sweat a lot at that temperature.
I would suspect that another factor is that as a total cost of operation, energy costs are not significant for a retailer. So therefore the thinking would be that it isn't worth the miniscule cost savings at the expense of possibly losing out on some sales.
In the US we use mainly central air systems in commercial building. As mentioned, building are not of equal temperature in all locations. But central air can only maintain the temperature of one particular location, where the thermostat is located. Also one's proximaty to the source of air makes a difference.
Commercial buildings in Japan do not usually use central air. They use multiple units, approximately 1 on each floor. Since there is a system on each floor upfront installation costs in new buildings are higher but ongoing energy expenses are lower as adjustments can be made on a per floor basis. Construction in the US is usually focused on minimizing upfront costs at the expense of ongoing operating costs unless the payback period is 2 years or less. As Europe decides to retrofit A/C into old buildings the Japanese system tends to have a lower upfront cost compared to central A/C due to easier installation - a win-win situation.
Posted by: asiequana at May 29, 2008 9:35:18 AM
Cold Houses in Warm Climates and Vice Versa David Friedman
Houses in cold climates are kept warmer in winter than those in warm climates, despite the greater cost of heating in colder climates. It is shown that this is not only consistent with but implied by rationality. The contrary intuition is based on a confusion between average and marginal cost. The same analysis implies that it is rational to keep the thermostat setting constant throughout the heating season, rather than changing it with changes in external temperature.
Posted by: Alex J. at May 29, 2008 9:47:22 AM
In many industrial applications water is chilled centrally, cooled below the needed temperature and pumped to its destination. How cool is partly governed by how much heat is absorbed in pumping to the furthest building. Each building then operates a heat exchanger, and zones within the building run heaters to warm the resulting air to a comfortable temperature. So often the energy efficient move is for the building (especially ones close to the chilling facility) is to run cold.
Posted by: anonymous at May 29, 2008 9:54:20 AM
Infernally cold? Hmm.
Posted by: Matthew Petersen at May 29, 2008 10:09:18 AM
For a long time I blamed freezing office spaces on the differential between male and female business dress. Guys have, year-round, undershirt + long-sleeved dress shirt + tie (aka scarf) + jacket, usually in wool or wool blend, since it doesn't seem like many men have seasonal suits. The high-powered office people being majority male, their sentiments on the AC level would tend to trump those of younger, less senior female employees shivering in their skirts, seasonally appropriate cotton or linen fabrics, and short-sleeved or sleeveless tops (even with a suit jacket).
Then I worked at an office in which even relatively senior male employees who wore suits and ties every day had space heaters under their desks, and I junked that theory.
Isn't cold air typically thought to be more stimulating? You wouldn't want people warm and drowsy in an office or a movie theater. Also, nothing says "low-class" like the smell of sweaty customer.
Posted by: Amber at May 29, 2008 10:26:22 AM
I worked on a project advising a national chain of department stores (90 million sq ft of retail space) on cost reduction project back in 1998/99. One of the projects we worked on was to determine if changing a stores temperature had any impact on sales. The answer was that, yes, there seemed to be a correlation, too warm or too cold lowered sales, nothing surprising there, and that the target temperature would be just slightly cool, 68F. What was also interesting was the importance of air circulation into areas with intense lighting, certain areas such as jewellry and clothing sold better with pretty intense warm lighting, but the increased heat load would concurrently lower sales. The net was that they were able to target the right store temperature, the right lighting, and then work on improving air circulation to specific store locations.
My guess as to why you find stores running at 63F would be to manage an inadequate circulation syustem and get close to 68F in the literal hot spots under the warm lights in high margin departmetns.
Posted by: David Rotor at May 29, 2008 10:52:29 AM
It's usually around 68-10, not 63 degrees. I keep my home at 66-67 because that's how I like it. But Houston is the a/c capital of the world (or so they say) and I've never been to a store that felt too cold. If anything, most places are a little on the warm side. And no I'm not obese. I just love cold air. I don't see how anyone even lived in Texas before a/c. Surely a/c is the greatest, most important invention in the history of mankind. It made the entire earth not only habitable, but comfortable.
Posted by: bruce at May 29, 2008 11:20:22 AM
In Boston in the winter it is warm indoors, too warm.
In Birmingham in the summer it is cold indoors, too cold.
These anecdotes may help to describe the state of hospitality in each place. I don't know why it would be too cold in Boston in the summer, but I have never experienced that (any evidence is appreciated).
Having lived in Berlin last summer, I noticed 3 days where AC would have been nice, but overall it would have been a useless expense. I wore long hiking pants most days, something that is not possible in Fairfax during the summer. I assume that Europe has the correct strategy based on my observation, my model would suggest that AC is more popular where the temperature is above X, Y days out of the year.
In offices, as long as it is men's fashion to wear wool blend suits, the temperature of 68 indoors seems right to me -- summer and winter. I would understand why women in linen dresses which are appropriate for the external temperature of 88 would feel cool indoors, but it doesn't make sense to me that the people wearing the long wool pants and coat should sweat in order to have the indoor temperature conducive to linen dresses. There seems to be a major mismatch between wardrobe demands between the sexes.
Posted by: at May 29, 2008 11:47:36 AM
So I'm a little behind on my RSS feed of MR, but there was a posting yesterday about Obama's forward-looking pose and my read of the post was that the author of this blog thought it was a serious story, not the Onion story it actually was. But I came over to the blog to see if there was an update and I see that the post has been pulled. Interesting way to make up for misreading an Onion story. Here's the text of the original post:
Obama has reportedly been working tirelessly with his top political strategists to perfect his looking-off-into-the-future pose, which many believe is vital to the success of the Illinois senator's campaign.
When performed correctly, the pose involves Obama standing upright with his back arched and his chest thrust out, his shoulders positioned 1.3 feet apart and opened slightly at a 14-degree angle, and his eyes transfixed on a predetermined point between 500 and 600 yards away. Advisers say this creates the illusion that Obama is looking forward to a bright future, while the downturned corners of his lips indicate that he acknowledges the problems of the present.
The pointer is from Grant McCracken, who also offers a photo of the pose. Note by the way that Grant's new book Transformations is out; my review copy arrived just before my trip but everything but Grant is worth reading. You can buy the book here.
Posted by: at May 29, 2008 11:51:18 AM
...end italics
Posted by: at May 29, 2008 11:51:33 AM
Don't the Japanese where you are have public service campaigns to stop using so much air conditioning? Maybe it was in Singapore. I hope the global warming crowd brings that movement here because I can't stand air conditioning. My factory job is about 75 year round and I like it that way.
Posted by: Noumenon at May 29, 2008 12:05:52 PM
Why are movie theaters cold? It's better for them to be too cold than too hot.
You can always throw on a jacket, but you can only remove so many articles of clothing before you get arrested for public indecency. Better to give people a problem they can fix themselves.
Posted by: Erik at May 29, 2008 12:36:53 PM
trying to end italics...
Posted by: anon at May 29, 2008 12:36:58 PM
Here is an interesting anecdote: I am a native of Arizona. When I was growing up everyone kept their houses and businesses at 80F in the summer. (When the outdoor temperature is 110, 80 feels cool). In the past 10-15 mean temperatures at businesses has dropped to about 68F. That 10-15 year period coincided with the huge influx of people from other parts of the country who were used to lower mean summer temperatures. So I often wonder how much of the temperature shift here in Arizona is due to people trying to adapt their new hotter environment to be like their old cooler environment.
Posted by: NASCAR Wife at May 29, 2008 12:39:18 PM
Women resent cold more than men because on average thay have less muscle mass. Muscles are the source of body heat. In my work place, with temperature set at 23°C (Whatever that is in Fahrenheit), over half of my female colleagues were a coat or a sweater all the time.
Posted by: Fernando at May 29, 2008 12:39:46 PM
end emphasis!
I'm surprised nobody has suggested that retail stores might cool things off in order to sell warm clothes. It reminds me of the Hong Kong Phooey episode where the guy makes rain in order to sell umbrellas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kon4czfAHu4
Posted by: BoscoH at May 29, 2008 12:44:05 PM
One of the reasons air conditioning is so cold in offices, is because usually the windows don't open. Working late in the office, when the air condition shuts down for the evening, with a temperature that would have been pretty pleasant if outdoors, it was pretty damn stuffy in a hermetically sealed glass box. There was a distinct sour milk smell to the office that I only noticed in the evening when the air condition shut down.
I am guessing those European buildings without air conditioning would be older buildings that have windows that employees are allowed to open to get fresh air, and I am guessing the sealed glass office towers run their air conditioning the same way the U.S. does.
Posted by: Rex Rhino at May 29, 2008 12:53:55 PM
To be the only person to carry on from the final comment, the noise level in Pachinko parlours seemed strange from the parlour's perspective, not so much because it was loud, but that it drowns out the winning jingles from the machines. Poker Machine (slot machine) addicts end up getting a reaction to winning jingles that jumps down the pleasure trains in the brain, making the gambling problem a neuro-chemical addiction. These people make up the greater part of the revenue stream. I can't see why the client base of the pachinko parlours would be different. Surely exploiting addicition isn't considered unethical by the yakuza?
Posted by: Richard Green at May 29, 2008 1:03:03 PM
Russians believe in the "cold air kills things" idea. In fact they also think cold circulating air will make anyone instantly sick with pneumonia or influenza. I feel that a flaw in the education system of the USSR may have been teaching how disease works. Hopefully they've addressed it by now?
Posted by: Andy at May 29, 2008 1:15:47 PM
HVAC inappropriateness abounds in Houston. Things like buildings so cold inside that the windows are sheeted with condensation. It's disgusting, but it's generally not the result of obesity, or of people being from other parts of the country and trying to adapt, or such. It's because it's bad engineering, or, to be more generous, engineering that is limited financially to ways that won't allow local temperature control to be achieved satisfactorily, or to repurposing structures. The largest Starbucks there, when it went to 24 hours, still had HVAC designed to handle a daytime load. Your needs at noon are very quite different from your needs at 3AM.
Also, the thermal mass issue is important. Central air is just a real bitch to distribute properly and still get comfortable temperatures on every floor. Frankly, it generally fails to do so somewhere in every building. Hot floor, cold floor, hot floor, cold floor is a common pattern, I understand.
Also, wool suits (partly as a rant). Stupid stupid stupid in many places. London is not the world center of commerce, and fashion should not be dictated by it's climate.
Posted by: agm at May 29, 2008 1:24:57 PM
spotcash, you beat me to the comment. I really love this phrase. I'll start saying it all the time, watching for people's puzzled expression as they seek to decipher if I was cognizant of the oxymoron or serious.
Posted by: idreamtofblood at May 29, 2008 1:28:34 PM
I believe the peak cooling load story for movie theaters (which do in fact feel comfortable-to-warm when they are full) but not so much for large stores, because in the winter they are too hot. Personally I would prefer stores to be a bit colder than comfortable during the winter months because I'm already wearing a coat, and it is more convenient to continue to wear it rather than carry it.
Posted by: Noah Yetter at May 29, 2008 1:32:36 PM
"For instance businesses offices should be somewhat warmer than Nordstrom or Macy's."
Any one here ever walk in a casino before? If I ran a business I'd blast the thing with cold air to keep my employees awake and alert for the same reason the poker room in the Borgata is 60 some degrees all year round.
Posted by: Jay at May 29, 2008 1:43:30 PM
I'm with Erik. People can put on more clothes when they're cold, but they can't make the air colder if they're too warm. So cranking up the AC satisfies everyone the most.
Posted by: Geoff at May 29, 2008 3:33:17 PM
I went into a Pachinko parlour while on a business trip to Nagoya last year -- I am little confused by your question though. The main reason it was loud in the parlour I was in was solely due to the sound of thousands of metal balls falling through the the hundred or so Pachinko machines. Was there another noise you were referring to?
Posted by: Dave T at May 29, 2008 3:50:15 PM
I believe cooler temperatures allow more, higher brain function.
Posted by: aaron at May 29, 2008 3:52:26 PM
It's not every time I see a post here about exactly what I do for a living: engineering HVAC controls in retail stores. I'm fairly new and don't all the ins and outs of the business yet, but I'll give some of the questions a shot.
First of all, stores are typically colder than homes because the employees are active working and customers are active moving around and shopping. Most setpoints are 66-70 year-round. We use probably the most robust controls systems around and we're pretty good about keeping these ideal conditions.
Many times, there's extremely cold or extremely hot temperatures due to crappy engineering, crappy contractors or crappy maintenance people. I can't count the number of times I've seen sensors by copiers or computers. Many times the control system sucks so much that the maintenance people lock on compressors when it gets hot in a store and don't put them back in auto.
There's plenty of systems out there that only work well in January and August. Houston, for example, may have the largest design cooling load in the US due to high temperatures and high humidity. Not only is it hot outside, but the high humidity makes occupants want cooler temperatures. 80 degrees in Arizona feels a lot better than 80 degrees in Houston or Florida. When that huge system is locked completely on in, say, October, it makes the store damn cold, as the one commenter mentioned.
The basic reason for all this is that stores are really, really cheap with their A/C systems and with what they pay the contractors and maintenance people. It's slowly changing with higher energy costs, but the Wal-marts out there have a hard time justifying more up front costs.
Posted by: anon at May 29, 2008 4:17:59 PM
...and then you have people like me: my body temperature is constantly around 93°, I weigh about 95lbs and any room temperature below 77° is horrible for me. putting a sweater on doesn't help either, i actually need outside temperature to keep my body temperature up.
Posted by: Finja at May 29, 2008 4:23:30 PM
This is a highly amusing sequence of rants and guesses. Thank you, anon, for shedding some real expertise light on the subject.
I've done some building management in office buildings and sat on a building design committee for a church. There are several factors:
* The offset between the temperature outside and the target temperature inside.
* The number of times the door gets opened.
* The sheer number of people.
* The amount that people will be moving around.
* The amount of electrical equipment and lights.
If you look around at most stores and offices you will see that there is a big vent blowing right on you as you come through the door. Your body and the air around you are outside temp'd, and you and that air need to be converted to inside temp asap.
In a former office space we had A/C problems for weeks on end in the Texas summer. We found that if the office was warm when the day started then the limited A/C capacity would never catch up. But if the space was cooler at the start of the day then the limited A/C capacity could keep up. I'm not sure if this is one of the laws of thermodynamics, but it seems that the people who design A/C systems believe in it.
Maybe their incentives are skewed. In hot areas the maintenance people get little grumbles if an office/store/whatever is too cold, but they get screamed at and really bothered when the same space is too hot.
Posted by: Randy at May 29, 2008 6:29:42 PM
Some cultural observations:
As a kid in tropical Africa in the 50s it was av. 90 degrees, 90% humidity, no A/C, got used to it.
Went to school in England, had wear shorts and sleep with the window open year-round, loved it.
Had to be careful with high school chemistry textbooks - US ones used 72 degrees for room temperature, UK used 68, so I figured the Yanks were pretty soft.
In Australia in 1970 even the business men wore shorts (don't know if they still do), but very adaptive, and surprisingly natty.
Lived in San Francisco since then, and of course our summers are colder than our winters, or at least feel like it. This is, of course, why we are smarter than those dunderheads in LA and San Diego - our crania are kept at a steady optimum temperature, whilst theirs are being saunified.
Rising energy costs will soon resolve the profligacy of over-heating/cooling.
Posted by: ian at May 29, 2008 7:17:12 PM
My office (Japan) keeps a 20 (68) degree temperature in the winter, and 27-28 (80) in the summer.
It's not bad at all, you get used to it (of course, we're also allowed to shed suit jackets, neckties, and long sleeves in the summer, and almost nobody wears wool-blend during the summer here).
Even in apartments/houses there are individual air conditioning units for each room. I disliked it when I first came, but with heating/cooling costs what they are, I've grown to appreciate the extra money and comfort.
Posted by: Sal Paradise at May 30, 2008 12:15:00 AM
I am certain that at least a partial reason for low temperatures in places such as theatres, casinos, malls and auditoriums are to prevent people from falling asleep, and to prevent body odor multiplied by sweating. So, the benefits would include less need for security personnel and preventing greater patron unhappiness due to stench.
Also, it is true that a mammal will raise the temperature incrementally, so this is why the temperature is noticeably lower when there is a dearth of people in a place. Further, even though theoretically an AC system could react swiftly to localised variations in temperature, its not apt to happen in any building meant for the mass of humanity. It would be very expensive to build and maintain, for one thing. I imagine it would be extremely wasteful, as well (heating and cooling constantly).
Posted by: DPirate at May 30, 2008 8:57:41 AM
Shouldn't we be happy that most retail businesses maintain low temperatures? Those are the places we mingle with the masses. I don't want some sweaty person brushing against me or trying on a shirt that ends up back on the rack. Obese people seem to begin overheating at about 70 degrees. Let's keep them cool - and dry!
Posted by: John Dewey at May 30, 2008 9:45:00 AM
Cold indoor shopping malls and retail establishments:
* Chilled people buy more food. Food vendors like to sell more food.
* It's easier for customers who feel chilled to compensate (with clothing) than for customers who feel overheated to do the opposite. Customers who feel chilled may even buy more clothing-- but customers who feel too warm are likely to leave without purchasing clothing.
* Cooling a big space with people milling around in it amounts to a Goldilocks problem. To ensure that no location is too hot (for customers' or workers' comfort), the people managing the space may have to overcool some other locations.
* Cold people sweat and stink less.
Posted by: Quoc at Jun 1, 2008 3:14:58 AM
I work in a public Japanese office with a policy of "summer eco-style 28 degrees."
It's hot and humid in the office, and while it's now ok to lose the ties and roll up the sleeves (Cool Biz), I spend a large part of the day fanning myself and commiserating with my colleagues about how hot it is. Finding the right level of air conditioning for the office is tough as well, especially when it is a government office trying to be more ecologically friendly. But 28 is definitely too hot in combination with this humidity.
"Cool Biz" itself is an interesting part of Japan's business culture - my office switched to Cool Biz on June 1st. So everyone showed up in full suits until the end of May, and as soon as it became June everyone switched to short sleeved shirts with no ties, despite the fact that we went through a heat wave in May and it has been raining and cool the past few days here.
Shopping in the winter is another ordeal here in Japan. You wear warm clothes because you are walking about outside, but when you go in a store the heating is pumped up, and you are far too hot in all your winter clothes and are forced to strip it off and carry it.
The pachinko parlours provide for many Japanese people an escape from their problems. They can leave their work or personal problems behind when they go in there, because the little balls are hypnotizing, the game requires the right amount of concentration, there is quite of bit of money on the line, and finally, because it is just so loud that it is hard to hear yourself think. Pure escapism, with all the bonuses of gambling addictions.
Posted by: Michael at Jun 3, 2008 2:17:33 AM
One more mechanical reason: Grocery stores like to keep things cool inside so that the refrigerators and freezers don't have to work as hard. Obviously it doesn't lower overall cooling costs, but does keep the freezer compressor from burning out.
Posted by: Q at Jun 3, 2008 12:27:31 PM
