Many women feel cold in offices because of their strong air-conditioners. A research conducted by Maastricht University has found a reason as to why women complaint of feeling cold in their offices.

Study researchers were of the view that indoor climate controls are set on the metabolic rate of an average 40-year-old man. Due to which, women have increased chances to feel cold in modern air-conditioned offices.

The research findings are based on 16 young women working in offices. The researchers said that women’s basic metabolic rate are lower than the standard values being used to set office temperatures.

Study researchers Dr. Boris Kingma and Professor Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt from Maastricht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, were of the view, “Thermal comfort models need to adjust the current metabolic standard by including the actual values for females. Consequently, thermal comfort models need either to be recalibrated or enhanced using a biophysical approach”.

The researchers said that the current air-conditioning standards have been taken from research carried out in the 1960s. In the study, thermal comfort was assessed of majorly 1,300 sedentary students. The value for metabolic rate was set on of a 70kg man who was 40 years old.

But when it comes to women then their metabolic rates are very different from men. The researchers have asked to come up with a new system that takes into account gender differences, age and physiological features like obesity or lean.