Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Is It Warm In Here, Or Is It Just Me?

Somewhere in my recent swath of work-related reading I came across a definition of "compromise" as being "a solution which neither side is happy with." Or words to that effect.

I think the home thermostat situation in our household fits that interpretation perfectly. We have it set around 23 degrees Celsius when we're both home, which manages to be both warmer than I'd like it to be, and cooler than Vicki enjoys. I sometimes wonder if it would make more sense to crank it up or down, since at least that way one of us would be comfortable! I've definitely noticed that Vicki's sensitivity to cold seems to be getting worse with age, whereas I'm becoming less and less able to operate when the environment's too warm (a situation that's cropped up at work several times recently). It must make for an odd scene, were anyone to peer in a window: Vicki's wearing long pants, a shirt, a sweater and socks, and often wrapped in a blanket, while I'm strolling around in very little clothing (I'll spare you all the gory details) looking like I'm about to break out in a sweat.

I just hope this isn't something that's going to continue to get worse with time, or else we may end up with the last stage in the separate beds -> separate bedrooms -> separate houses progression that Vicki's always going on about!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Potential tie-breaker: what is better for the environment/your wallet: colder in the winter, warmer in the summer. Which I know you already do adjust for.

FalloutBoy said...

Sometimes it is not just about the environment or your wallet but about how comfortable it is for you. For the Vu family, it is all about the environment (we were partly 'green' but thanks to Jakub N., we are now totally 'green'). The Canadian governement suggest the ideal temperature to set the thermostat at during the winer months is 68F or 20C. We tried that at our house for about a week last winter (about the time we started to be more 'green' aware) but it is too cold for the kids. For Lillian and I, we just put on extra layer of clothing but Jasmine is really fussy with too many layers. We found that at 70F or 21.1C, it is tolerable even for the kids plus we save quite a bit of money too :-)

Remember you can always put on extra layers if you're cold but you can only dress down to a point if you're hot before the neighbours start to complain :-)

On a related topic, did you watch 'The Inconvient Truth' movie? If not, I can bring it in.

Anonymous said...

It's not warm in here! The Thermostat is confused! But I do appreciate that it is a compromise temperature. Maybe we can try one day on and one day off? Then you could be comfortable 1/2 the time? I have lots of clothes and can buy more if I'm too cold (ha)!

Anonymous said...

mine's at 21. good temperature.