Agree on degrees

With the onset of summer temperatures, the battle over air conditioning levels heats up

Employee wrapping up to work in overly chilled office should lobby some support from colleagues to get AC issue solved. Jaime Puebla / The National

Despite the scorching heat outside, offices, restaurants and malls can feel like icehouses. This is not a salubrious situation for people with a proclivity to feel the cold worse than they do hot weather. Consider the case of MM, as our business pages do today, who complains that he has to bring jumpers into work (on a hot summer's day) to wrap up warmly, even though his colleagues are not particularly affected by the temperature.

But, ideal room temperatures are different for each of us, as workplace doctor Alex Davda concludes. Despite knowing that the optimum temperature is around 20 degrees centigrade, the air conditioning is often set to make all but the most hardy Eskimo shiver.

On the day that the International Renewable Energy Agency opens its global headquarters here, perhaps the best solution might be a low-tech one – tweak the thermostat and save energy too.