Safe temperature?

[Tony]

I was just reading about the temperature on the BBC website and they quoted these stats.

24C - top range of comfort
21C - recommended living room temperature
Less than 20C - death risk begins
18C - recommended bedroom temperature
16C - resistance to respiratory diseases weakened
12C - more than two hours at this temperature raises blood pressure and increases heart attack and stroke risk
5C - Significant risk of hypothermia
Source: West Midlands Public Health Observatory

I’m surprised that these are so high and that there’s only say 2 degrees difference between recommended living room temp and death risk.

There’s loads of us that go out in the cold, has anyone got stories of bad experiences? Or good ones!

 

[Jon]

Tony
I think the 20 degree death risk is talking about your body-core temperature not air temperature. I seem to remember from 1st aid training that your body works very hard to maintain itself at the perfect core temperature, but when it finally stops being able to do that you are in serious trouble.

 

[stovie]

I was just reading about the temperature on the BBC website and they quoted these stats.

Less than 20C - death risk begins
18C - recommended bedroom temperature

So, am i at risk of dying if I sleep at the recommended bedroom temperature

It'd be interesting to know how they came up with these figures.

 

[Toddy]

There's a long article in this week's New Scientist about obesity; it discusses the whys and wherefores of the failing attempts to tie the reasons down to one or two factors when it's an entire lifestyle that's the cause.
One major, but greatly underrated factor appears to be central heating and air conditioning in our homes and workplaces. The difference that causes can be a whopping amount of daily calories not used to either heat us up or cool us down.
Maybe we need to get used to our own temperature regulation again instead of living and working in a constant near tropical warmth.

I'm constantly being got at to close the door/ windows I like fresh air in the house, it lets everyone breathe easily, you can always find socks and another jumper

Sorry Tony, relevant but a bit off topic. The figures you've quoted are really surprising. I know my grandparent's houses and my childhood home only had one main fire in them. In Winter a shovelful of burning coals was taken through to the other room's hearth about half an hour before bed, but that was it.

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[stovie]

Tony
I think the 20 degree death risk is talking about your body-core temperature not air temperature. I seem to remember from 1st aid training that your body works very hard to maintain itself at the perfect core temperature, but when it finally stops being able to do that you are in serious trouble.

If they are talking core temps throughout then in degrees C they are all severely hypothermic....

I just think they've got their figures wrong, or they haven't explained themselves very clearly

 

[gregorach]

Bah - my target living room temp is 18-19 deg C. My bedroom is several degrees colder (it's where I keep my beer barrels ).

I suspect that the "risk" temperatures are naked skin temperatures.

 

[dommyracer]

[/quote]Maybe we need to get used to our own temperature regulation again instead of living and working in a constant near tropical warmth.[/quote]

I agree!! When its cold outside, the office is set at 27 degrees and when its warm outside its 17-18 degrees.

So I'm cold in the summer and boiling hot in the winter. Great.

 

[spamel]

I agree with Mary about fresh air. I do feel the cold 'cos I'm all skin and bones, but I'd rather be able to breathe fresh air than rank air that has been breathed by the rest of my family! I remember as a single soldier, my room mates would give me all manner of grief because the window above my bed was open all night. I didn't want to breathe in the flatulence from seven other drunken squaddies, so it stayed open no matter how much grief I got!

If you're cold, get a blanket, but get the fresh air in. If you all breathe the same air, disease will spread rapidly.

As to temperatures, I was laying in an ambush on exercise on Sennybridge Training Area as a young soldier, totally wet through and not having a fun time. I noticed my two mates were also suffering, we were the right cut off group in case the enemy made a run for it. I felt like I was drunk the way my speech was slurring and it was really wierd. My mates were the same and I recognised this as not being a good thing. We cuddled up as close as we could and kept talking to each other, something you shouldn't really do in an ambush!!

When it came time to fire, we loosed off a magazine each and then tried to do a mag change. Our hands were totally frozen and wouldn't work. If that had been real life and not an exercise we would probably have been killed by the enemy. It was a lesson learnt that also let me know how quickly you can start to go hypothermic when wet through, and the signs that are plain to see if only you are looking for them.

 

[dwardo]

Its probably skin temps ie no protection and i supposed anything less than body temperature and your starting to have to fight to stay warm. I dont know if you lot are the same but i contantly get people saying ooo your cold are you i thought you spend nights and days outside in the winter with no tent

Yes i do but i have a snugpack on a fire, thermal clothes and a bloody sleeping bag. Not just a tshirt and jeans on

They seem to think if you do a lot outside you have some kind of cold immunity

 

[Voivode]

There’s loads of us that go out in the cold, has anyone got stories of bad experiences? Or good ones!

I've got one from the summer of 2005. It was a particularly cold and wet summer and we (myself, my wife and another couple) were backpacking in the mountains. The first night was cool and a bit damp, but no problem with a fire and a good sleeping bag/tent. The next day we decided to push on over a pass to the next campground on our tour, despite the constant misting rain.

Two hours later, the temperature had dropped to ~9C, we were wet to the bone and standing at the top of a pass with the wind tearing through us. It took us another hour to reach the next camp (it was either push on for an hour or go back two) and we all had a touch of hypothermia. It rained all day and into the night, making it difficult to dry off as all the firewood was wet.

The next day dawned sunny but still cool. We were glad we didn't have to fight through that again.

The leading cause of death in the Rocky Mountains is hypothermia because the weather is fantastically changeable. It will be 30C in the day and as soon as the sun goes behind the mountains to the west, the temperature can fall to 10C or lower. One learns to bring warm clothes and food even on a day hike or risk unpleasantness.

 

[spamel]

The weather in Canada certainly can be fickle!! I was caught in the mother of all elctrical storms on the training ground, Suffield. Bolts were landing all around us and I can safely say it is the most terrified I have ever been in my entire life! Looking back on it it was quite funny, but at the time, me and my mate cowering on the ground as lightning bolts struck around us, deafening us and blinding us with the intense light was definitely an experience I would not like to go through again in a hurrry.

Oh, and it was bloody cold and wet aswell, but I wasn't really thinking about that at the time!! :umbrella:

 

[EdS]

even at 18c if you are wet and exhausted you still can risk hypothermia

 

[Ogri the trog]

Seeing as others have gone with a few forces stories;
One very cold day in July '88 I was in the Falkland Islands - damned cold overnight and we managed to get the temperature UP to -12 deg C INSIDE the hangar - when supprisingly it was comfortable to work in just shirtsleeves - I guess its what you get used to, though I've said for a long time that I prefer the cooler side of most folks comfort zone.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[dommyracer]

Not really outdoors, but I went to Berlin wit some mates (not outdoorsy types) last year in February.
They were all chuckling at me because I was wearing a thick knee length coat, wooly hat, gloves, thick jumper, thick socks etc.etc. - we were off out clubbing.

However, I was the one laughing when we were sat waiting for the train home at 6am in -10c

 

[reddave]

If I remember correctly the chartered institute of building services engineering guide A states that the minimum 8 hour working temperature in an open plan office is 18 degrees C for sedentary activity wearing standard clothing i.e. shirt/blouse with pants/skirt et al , (not sure of the ventilation rate though) but for active work it can be 5 degrees C. I will check on the active environment but the office is definite, so I would recheck those figures.
Sounds like I'm being snotty......I'm not