While enjoying my latte yesterday at my local Costa Coffee, my teeth began chattering. It wasn’t the first time, and I thought that as it was 37 degree outside, perhaps my body was just getting a bit over air conditioned.
It wasn’t until I got up and looked at the thermostat (see above), that I realized that they had the A/C set 21 degree Celsius, a full 5 degree below the Shanghai Municipal government target of 26
Not that unused to seeing thermostats as low as this one, I asked on several occasions to turn the temp up as several other customers were clearly uncomfortable. When doing so, I realized the problem. That the position of the counter top was directly in front of the window where temperatures were warmer (A clear sign that the building design, and operations, would have benefited from a better architect).
to learn why, it is important to keep that thermostat up, I recommend you read the 2006 Tongji University study Tongji University impact of AC systems on energy industry (download here)