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Scientists have confirmed that women are at a high risk of getting over-chilled in the air-conditioning at the office and are less comfortable compared to men.

Researchers revealed that the basis for Indoor climate control systems is the average resting metabolic rate of a man aged 40 years. While the female metabolic rate may be overestimated by up to 35%.

Study authors on research

Dr Boris Kingma and Professor Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt, study authors from Maastricht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, stated that, "Thermal comfort models need to adjust the current metabolic standard by including the actual values for females."

"Consequently, thermal comfort models need either to be recalibrated or enhanced using a biophysical approach," they stated.

"This in turn will allow for better predictions of building energy consumption, by reducing the bias on thermal comfort of sub-populations and individuals."

Study details

A study involved 16 young women performing office work. The results indicated that the women were at increased risk of developing over-chilled by air-conditioning in summer when compared to men.

It was clearly noted that the metabolic rates of women were lower than that of standard values employed in air conditioners currently. This clearly suggested that women needed lesser cooling than men.

Current air-conditioning standards

Current air-conditioning standards are based on studies conducted in 1960, which took into account average metabolic rate value of resting 40-year-old man with 70 kg weight.

The authors called that this rate is too much and should be re-considered by taking into account even other factors like age and physiological characteristics such as being obese or lean.

-Sumana