I just came back from teaching in a classroom that made me feel like a popsicle. It was kind of nippy outside this morning, but no comparison to the meat locker-like artificial environment inside. I did not have a thermometer handy, but I am guessing that my classroom at UTSA and my refrigerator at home are not far apart in temperature. Nobody finds this pleasant. Students sit there in scarves and hoodies. I sometimes catch myself pacing around like a caged tiger during lecture just to keep myself warm. Yet nobody questions this practice.
Follow me below the fold for the rest of my rant.
I have lived in Texas for 18 years now, and I still haven't gotten used to the difference between the oven-like heat (most of the year) outside and the freezing cold inside of most public buildings. Not just schools, but libraries, banks, courthouses, movie theaters, even Whataburger restaurants are so refrigerated that the employees bring heavy sweaters and jackets that they shed when they go outside. It is nuts.
Whenever I complain about it, somebody will say, "But you're from Germany, so you should be used to being in cold temperatures." Of course I am -- outdoors with a heavy coat on, not inside a building. In Germany, if it gets cold outside, we turn the heater on inside. In the summertime, instead of icing the place down, we open a window and let the breeze in, or we turn on a ceiling fan (my mother calls them "those Casablanca thingies"). Of course, here, in my poorly insulated condo, I turn the AC on, too, but a set it at around 80, not 62. Yet my electric bill is outrageous, though not as outrageous as my neighbors'.
Whenever I complain, I am always told that there is a good reason why it has to be that cold. At the university it's "because of the computers." Now I know that computers don't do well in extreme temperature, but does "extreme" mean anything above 70? At church we're freezing our butts off "because of the daycare." Do babies go bad if they're not refrigerated?
One of my colleagues said that our students would fall asleep if they were comfortable in class. Well, they still doze off if they are sufficiently sleep-deprived.
Since we're all "going green" now, the grocery stores sell reusable shopping bags, but they still keep the AC cranked up. When students write essays about Global Warming, they recommend driving less and turning the lights and computers off more often, but no one mentions the AC. My frequent complaints to the facilities people fall on deaf ears.
Does anybody here have a good source on the environmental and economic impact of air conditioning? I'd like to come armed with convincing data next time I launch another rant. Even more wonderful would be something on how much money a university could save if the air conditioning were go down (and the temperatures up) a few degrees.
Thanks.