WASHINGTON: Air conditioning units are designed for the body temperature and metabolism of men, which leaves most women feeling cold, a study suggests. That would explain why women in offices often wear cardigans while the men comfortably stroll around in shirtsleeves.
Boris Kingma of Maastricht University Medical Center in the Netherlands published findings in the journal Nature Climate Change on Monday showing that “the value for the heat load of a building is based on an average male” and overestimates the metabolic rate of women.
The researchers gauged the body temperatures, oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide emission of 16 women in their 20s in ordinary office conditions and found that the body temperatures of women are 20 to 30 percent lower than the standard air conditioning temperatures set to create “comfortable” conditions.
Women generally have smaller frames than men and a higher percentage of fat cells, which retain less heat than muscle cells. This partially explains why women tend to have lower metabolic rates.
