AC101
Summer is in full display with the London Plane trees lining the streets. Dressed in green, maple-shaped leaves with tree trunks painted white, these rows of uniform trees are pleasing to the eye and provide a welcoming shade from the sun. Neither the trees nor I are in London, though. I am writing from a coastal city in China facing the Yellow Sea. These trees have followed me all the way from my childhood in Johannesburg, where you can enjoy more than three hundred sunny days a year.
However, this is not a story about trees or even the outdoors. Instead, it's about comfortable indoor temperatures, especially during summer. In multicultural settings or blended families under one roof, the air-conditioning remote control can be a source of contention, resulting in discomfort and unhappy feelings. I am a descendant of white, Western, middle-European parents, making me Caucasian. My wife is Han Chinese, and our two children are blended. We all have different indoor temperature comfort levels. Running the air conditioner at 26 degrees Celsius can be comfortable for my wife. Any temperature above 23 degrees Celsius becomes increasingly uncomfortable for both me and my daughter.
A recent study published in Building and Environment by George Havenith and other co-authors concludes that Asian people feel comfortable with indoor temperatures up to 5°C higher than Caucasians. In China, "kongtiao," meaning air conditioner, is treated as an unnecessary evil, especially by anyone born before 1980. I have witnessed Chinese staff working happily during summer in hot kitchens with the AC set at 27°C! In kindergartens, public schools, and even universities, Chinese people will resist switching on the air-conditioning until the gypsum starts cracking and peeling off the walls from the heat.
If you are a first-time expatriate or someone working in a multicultural setting, be aware that colleagues from different countries, especially hot climates, will be more sensitive to cold when you blast that AC at 16°C. I always used to wonder why my former African co-workers were so formal, wearing jackets during summer in the office. Now I know—they were freezing from the centralized office AC set at 20°C.
Happy summertime!
#AC101awareness
