arrives the cold seasonWe are entering the first “polar wave” of the season and in most homes it is time to check our heating systems and turn them on to be as comfortable as possible.
However, with the skyrocketing price of energy, both electricity and fuel, it is time to be as efficient as possible and save every electrical and gas watt and every gram of firewood or pellets that we put into our stoves.
For this, one of the most important factors is knowing how to choose correctly what temperature should we select in our thermostats or, if we don’t have a thermostat because, for example, we use a stove, being able to control what the room temperature is so we don’t waste fuel.
The ideal temperature at home: this is what science says
Alright, so what’s the ideal temperature What should be put on the thermostat to achieve a comfortable environment without spending a fortune on electricity or fuel for the boiler?
The answer is not unique, since although science responds with a series of theoretically “ideal” figures, the reality is that in the end the ideal temperature inside the house will depend on many factors, such as who lives in it, our thermal perceptions, the age of the inhabitants, the environmental humidity, the time we are going to spend inside, etc. However, there are a series of values that we can take as a reference from there start playing with the thermostat.
According to a study by the IDAE (Institute for the Diversification of Savings and Energy) and taking into account standardized criteria of ergonomics of the thermal environment, the comfort temperature in a closed environment such as a home and of “passive” activity, that is, when we are not doing any physical activity, it is in winter between 21°C and 23°C for daytime and between 15°C and 17°C at night.
If we exceed these 23 degrees, the air will be drier, the discomfort inside the house will increase and we will shoot up energy consumption as soon as the outside temperatures drop, especially if our home does not have good insulation. How many? Well between 7% and 10% for each grade above that we put in the thermostat.
The ideal temperature at home: additional factors
As we pointed out at the beginning, There is no “perfect temperature” general that we can apply and that’s it, since there are a series of factors that influence our perception of cold and our needs inside the house. Among them we can highlight the following:
Type of room where we are
the ideal temperature it will depend on the type of room in which we turn on the heating. For example, a bathroom where we momentarily want a warmer environment so as not to get cold when we get out of the shower for a few minutes is not the same as a bedroom where we only go to sleep at night or the living room where we will spend many hours at a time. throughout the day
In rooms such as the bathroom for short periods of time we can have the heating turned down or turned off and using a fast-acting portable electric heater that will allow us to reach those extra calories in a short space of time without having to wait for the bathroom to be permanently at that higher temperature, since most of the day we are not going to take advantage of it.
In rooms like the kitchen we will also have the help of the stove, which will increase the average temperature while we cook and where in general we will spend little time and also have Refrigeration equipment that will work best in low or moderate temperatures, such as refrigerators and freezers. For this reason, it is not usually highly recommended to raise the thermostat in this room, but rather to set it at a lower level, such as between 19-20 °C.
As we can see, it is advisable to have heating systems that we can control independently in each room, or if we have a unified thermostat for the whole house, which is installed in a central area and for medium use where we are going to spend most of the time, such as a living room.
Thermal sensation and environmental humidity level
Another factor that intervenes in the comfort of the home and that can influence how much we spend on heating is the so-called thermal sensation, a term that refers to the ability of people to perceive different sensations of cold or heat when faced with the same objective external temperature.
And one of the culprits that this thermal sensation varies inside the house is the relative humidity percentage or relationship between the partial pressure of water vapor and the equilibrium vapor pressure of water at a given temperature. Above values of 50% relative humidity in the home the feeling of heat usually increases and on the contrary, with lower values we usually have the feeling that it is colder and we will tend to turn up the heating spending more.
The IDAE recommends a relative humidity of 40%-50% for indoors and, in case we want to vary this percentage without resorting to raising the heating or air conditioning, we can choose to use some humidifier or dehumidifier that will allow us to modify the amount of water present in the air of the house.
State of health and activity of the inhabitants
The figures recommended above are given values for average middle aged people in good health. However, there are situations in which we will probably have to raise the thermostat a couple of degrees to improve comfort inside the house.
This is the case of houses where there is young children, especially babies, but also the elderly and people who are sick or have reduced mobility who, due to their physical situation, cannot perform physical activity throughout the day, having a slower metabolism.
In these cases, pediatricians recommend that the home temperature for a baby range from between 22-24°C for the day and the 18-20°C at nightsomething that we can apply to the rest of the inhabitants with more delicate health.
Cover image | Arthur Lambillotte