The temperature of shared office space is always ground for subtle warfare. At any given day and time, each occupant of the office space may want a different temperature to comfortably work at. Alas, such custom temperature zones are hardly possible in open cubicle space, so you end up with cooling fans on one desk and space heaters under the next.
Summer, winter, and all year round the thermal fronts can be felt as one walks across the office past each desk.
Will offices ever attempt, as so many cars do now, separate temperature controls even for people sitting right next to each other?
Fans do not cool the ambient temperature in a room. In fact, they raise it by a very small degree by adding energy to the air within a room. Your body is constantly warming the air around the surface of your skin. This creates a blanket of warm air all around your body. The only think that the fan does is displace this blanket with room temperature air making you feel cooler. This is the science behind everything from a cool breeze to wind chill. The breeze is not actually cooler than the ambient temperature, but it is stealing your aura of warm air and making you feel colder.
So when your cube mate asks you to turn off your fan because it is freezing. You can tell him or her that you are actually helping to warm the space.
@ Jordan
Exactly! And luckily in this case your actual temperature may not matter, as long as you “feel” cooler.
Of course…if it’s hot enough in there that you are sweating and then that sweat is evaporating in the breeze.
Maybe just drink some iced coffee?