Something I've long wondered about: Do restaurants, malls and movie theaters need to be that damn cold? Does it really increase sales that much?
It's a major pet peeve of mine. Office buildings are often much cooler than they need to be too. I think most places, including homes, could reduce A/C significantly.
Part of the problem is humidity removal. There are many times when I'll lower the thermostat even though the temperature is already at 76F, but I need to get the humidity lower in order to make the room/house comfortable.
It's especially the case at night where, if the humidity were lower, I'd just turn off A/C and open the windows.
Living in Florida, we keep our AC at 78 - which is what a representative of our local energy company suggested. For two humans, and two dogs, it's comfortable. When we have company, we kick it down to 76 - or 74 if someone is cooking.
When I got my first job the excuse I heard for the office being so cold is that it is chilled for men in suits (with jackets on). Which is definitely not how most employees are dressed in the summer!
Does anyone really care about the environment? It's in front of our eyes every day. Supermarkets have superfluous packaging. They have fridges without any doors on pumping out cold air constantly. We have advertisements sucking energy constantly. Bitcoin uses a significant chunk of the world electricity? It's "innovative"! Massive commutes to completely pointless jobs where companies compete to deliver the pointless service before employees travel 90 minutes back to their inadequately insulated home.
If someone came down from space to visit us and we said we are trying to fix the environment they'd laugh.
We are in this mess because our system inexorably leads to it. We've been in this mess since we adopted this system. We have to ditch it.
It's a major pet peeve of mine. Office buildings are often much cooler than they need to be too. I think most places, including homes, could reduce A/C significantly.