Center for the Built Environment (CBE), University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Indoor Environmental Quality Lab, School of Architecture, Design and Planning, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2021 Dec 8;11(1):23684. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-03121-1.
Growth in energy use for indoor cooling tripled between 1990 and 2016 to outpace any other end use in buildings. Part of this energy demand is wasted on excessive cooling of offices, a practice known as overcooling. Overcooling has been attributed to poorly designed or managed air-conditioning systems with thermostats that are often set below recommended comfort temperatures. Prior research has reported lower thermal comfort for women in office buildings, but there is insufficient evidence to explain the reasons for this disparity. We use two large and independent datasets from US buildings to show that office temperatures are less comfortable for women largely due to overcooling. Survey responses show that uncomfortable temperatures are more likely to be cold than hot regardless of season. Crowdsourced data suggests that overcooling is a common problem in warm weather in offices across the US. The associated impacts of this pervasive overcooling on well-being and performance are borne predominantly by women. The problem is likely to increase in the future due to growing demand for cooling in increasingly extreme climates. There is a need to rethink the approach to air-conditioning office buildings in light of this gender inequity caused by overcooling.
在 1990 年至 2016 年期间，室内制冷的能源使用量增长了两倍，超过了建筑物中任何其他用途的能源使用量。部分能源需求被浪费在过度冷却办公室上，这种做法被称为过度冷却。过度冷却归因于空调系统设计或管理不善，恒温器通常设置在低于建议舒适温度的水平。先前的研究报告称，女性在办公大楼中的热舒适度较低，但没有足够的证据来解释这种差异的原因。我们使用来自美国建筑物的两个大型且独立的数据集来表明，女性在办公室的温度舒适度较低主要是由于过度冷却造成的。调查回复显示，无论季节如何，不舒适的温度更可能是寒冷而不是炎热。众包数据表明，在美国各地的办公室，在温暖的天气中，过度冷却很常见。这种普遍过度冷却对幸福感和工作表现的影响主要由女性承担。由于对极端气候下制冷的需求不断增长，未来这个问题可能会加剧。鉴于过度冷却造成的这种性别不平等，需要重新考虑为办公大楼安装空调的方法。
