In the past decade there has been an avalanche of stories about air conditioning in the workplace. It is a story riddled with complaints - too hot, too cold, everyone is different.
But according to authors Boris Kingma and Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt, air conditioning is all about gender
"Indoor climate regulations are based on an empirical thermal comfort model that was developed in the 1960s. Standard values for one of its primary variables – metabolic rate – are based on an average male, and may overestimate female metabolic rate by up to 355," they said.
"This may cause buildings to be intrinsically non-energy-efficient in providing comfort to females.
"It’s worth noting that in the 1960s, male-only or male-dominated offices would have been the norm, given the lower numbers of women working in this sphere. So basing the temperature on an average male would, at that time, have made some sense."
This situation isn't just bad for women its bad for the environment.
"Ultimately, an accurate representation of thermal demand of all occupants leads to actual energy consumption predictions and real energy savings of buildings that are designed and operated by the buildings services community," the authors said.
They point out that in general, females prefer a higher room temperature than males – around 25 degrees celsius to 22 degrees respectively.
So if the temperature in your office fails, blame the woman nearest to you!