She's Freezing. He's Boiling. What To Do?

As we know from reports in the media or from our own experience, office workers many times clash about a temperature in which to work. But, what happens when people share the same household and can’t agree on a comfortable temperature either in the hottest or coldest seasons?

And what is the accepted ideal temperature for a home anyway? That can vary as much as the individual households involved.

The biggest problem with temperature preferences occurs when two or more people share the same roof on a day to day basis.  With the extreme variances in weather we have endured recently, my own thermostat has never gotten such a workout with changed settings, mostly suggested by my wife, asking for more heat.  There is a scientific reason for that.  Women simply get colder than men because they have less muscle, and muscle insulates the body.

The ideal room temperature has been a matter of debate for some time because people and their bodies vary so much, and the very function of the room would add to the equation. There would be a difference between the temperature of a family room or game room during the day where the ideal setting might be 71 or 72 degrees F., and a bedroom temperature at night, which might be 64 or 65 degrees F.  But those are the temperatures recommended by various public health agencies and they do not take into account individual preferences for comfort.

Today there is an answer to the problem of varying temperature preferences with the newer hydro-air systems for heating and air conditioning where a home owner, if so inclined, can have varying temperatures in every room in the house. And that would seem ideal to have the baby and grandma in warmer rooms, and the star athlete in a cooler room where he or she also studies.

Of course, that still doesn’t solve the challenge of a man and woman sharing the same bedroom where he likes it cold and she likes it warmer.

Click on the link here to see how I solved that problem in my own home.

She's Cold, He's Hot

Bill Primavera is a Realtor (www.PrimaveraRealEstate.com) in New York representing all of beautiful Westchester and Putnam Counties above Manhattan. He also is a marketing practitioner (www.PrimaveraPR.com) specializing in the lifestyles arena, and writes a syndicated column called “The Home Guru” which deals with all aspects of the housing market, design, decorating and landscaping. He can reached directly at 914-522-2076.