Sexist: They say that the air conditioning of buildings favors men – Clarín.com

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Sexist: They say that the air conditioning of buildings favors men

The state data from a study by Finnish researchers. The parameters used for the design of these systems are a standard established in 1960, not including women, and conforms to the values ​​of a man of 40 years. _mce_bogus=”1″

AIR. Arming different areas favors employees. RDYA offices, Dieguez Fridman. Photo: Martin Sigal

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A common scene in the workplace is the dispute by agreeing which is the optimum temperature when the air conditioning apparatus blessed lights: women feel cold while men heat.

One of the reasons for this kind of misunderstanding is that for men the ideal temperature is 22 degrees, while for women it is 25. This difference of only three degrees is crucial when establish standards which would be ideal to properly design a HVAC system. The data come from a study published Monday by the journal Nature Climate Chang e done by researchers dinamerqueses Boris Wouter Kingma Lichtenbelt van Marken, who as part of his research dealt with analyzing the physiology of 16 youths while performing light office work women. Their study indicates that the basal metabolism was siginifcativamente below the standard values, which led them to conclude that women require less low teperaturas summer to feel comfortable. In short, for men the ideal temperature in the home and at work is 22 degrees, and change for women is 25

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” The standards for thermal comfort models were established in the 60 by the Danish researcher Ole Fanger adjusting the values ​​of a man of 40 and 70 kilos of weight, “say the authors of the research, according to the Voxpopuli.com portal. These standards are still used to design air conditioning systems leaving out women for thermal calculations. While Fanger in their research recognizes that women are more sensitive to changes in temperature, its seven-point scale ranging from PMV called cold (-3) heat (+3) is based on the criterion which states that the temperature for most it is neutral independent of parameters such as sex,

The work of van Marken Kingma and collects case-studies conducted in Japan, Finland and the USA. UU., Among others, in homes and offices of large scale. These show that the sensitivity to temperature is very different in men and women and they tend to feel much cooler in situations of greater cooling activity under identical conditions and the same clothes. Despite this, the building design is still done with the old standard resulting in increased energy expenditure and discriminates against women, at least during the summer

The building designs generally have not taken account of these differences between men and women continues to apply the old standard which means more energy expenditure and discriminates against women workers, at least in summer conditions

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The study does not include the temperature conditions during the winter, so that researchers can clarify that with the systems of claefacción will do the same, but in reverse. Ie offices and intelligent edifcios regulate the heat according to the needs of women, so the complaint of men who usually heated and uncomfortable feel to have a higher metabolic activity. Kingma’s suggestion and van Marken is to design these spaces: flexible arm look different environments (otherwise the model or Open office open office), and custom that respect the needs of each sex, age group and body size. Which also result in a lower energy expenditure, since now only highest standards arising from the temperatures at which men feel more comfortable in use.