11/06/2022
This is a beautiful explanation of different approaches to staying warm. Since I come from the boondocks in a town of less than 2000. At the time I was born the census was at 1400 people. lol We took the approach of both. We try to heat the space with a wood burning stove in the living room to a level that you won't get sick in (yes the extreme hot and cold can make you sick). But we mostly used the heating people method, bc we did not have enough money nor had central heat and air. I come from the deep south so even today it's 79 degrees and in January it might get down into the 50's, and rarely does it snow although lately it has been.
Businesses normally take the heating spaces approach, but this can actually make your employees uncomfortable.
Is there a middle ground to how to keep ALL of your employees happy and comfortable?
With well-insulated houses and central heating as standard, I always grew up with heating the space as how you stay warm in the winter. A colleague once shared with me that where he'd lived, they thought of it as heating people, not spaces when looking to stay warm.
The heating people approach means rather than heating the air in the room, you focus on heating the person: warm clothes, hot drinks, baths, cosy furniture with high backs and sides that traps heat in, or furniture that is itself heated like the kotatsu or aga, and generally local heating where a small room or even part of a room may be warm while the rest may be cool — dividing screens are sometimes used.
This approach was common until relatively recently and also still is in countries where it was difficult to stay cool in the summer and houses weren't typically built to keep heat in.
Could also be a good way to save some $ this year.
