[pw6hv]

Actually my experience is the opposite. In colder climates such as Russia, Finland I have seen room temperatures to be quite mild, above 20C for sure. However, in Italy in winter it is quite cold inside.

Needless to say that thermal insulation is awful in IT.

[sgt]

Agreed, not sure what jb1991 refers to as colder climates. Countries with colder climates normally have decent indoor temperatures during winter. In Norway for example, you would be considered crazy to have anything less than 21-22C indoors.

[koide]

Where's your source? I bet there's people who keep it at 22 others at 25 and yet others at 16 in Norway.

[nemetroid]

Not Norway, but if you’re renting in Sweden, your landlord is required to provide an indoor temperature of 20 C.

https://lawline.se/answers/hur-kallt-far-det-vara-i-hyreslag...

[gwd]

Mine too. I'm from Michigan and my wife is from Hong Kong. In HK they don't have heating at all, and they generally keep the windows open all the time because it's so humid. It's usually pretty mild in the winter, but they have "cold snaps" where it might only be 12C; and if it's 12C outside, it's 12C inside. They just put on more clothes. So in a reversal of the stereotypes, she's usually the one wanting to turn the thermostat down, and I'm the one wanting to turn the thermostat up.

[komadori]

My old Cantonese teacher from HK told me he used to play Theme Hospital growing up, but he didn't understand why or how to stop the patients complaining about/dying from the cold. He didn't realise you need to build radiators!

[ulzeraj]

I’ve experienced more chilling temperatures in a southern brasilian house during winter than my current apartment in poland. I didn’t even had to turn on heating this winter while in São Paulo I often had to use multiple blankets to sleep.

I think that its all about the windows. In warm climate regions they are made to allow air circulation.

[masklinn]

> I think that its all about the windows. In warm climate regions they are made to allow air circulation.

Windows, walls, roofs, ceiling heights, …

In warm climates until you have AC you want shade and air circulation / drafts.

Having no roof insulation is not much of an issue (might even be advantageous to trigger forced airflow) as long as you’re far from the roof. Likewise high ceilings keep the heat climbing above head level.

And imperfectly adjusted doors and windows with dodgy (or missing) seals isn’t a bother when it’s not an advantage.

In cold climes none of those is really acceptable unless you want to absolutely nuke your bank account on heating, at least if the house is anything more than a place to sleep in.

[cameronh90]

Could it be that the outdoors being so cold increases radiation losses so you need a higher air temperature to compensate?

Personally I find if it's especially cold outside, I need to put the thermostat up to compensate.

[masklinn]

It’s because mild climates have bad insulation and when it’s 5C out moving the thermostat from 17 to 21 is a big change.

When it’s -25C out, not so much.

Japan can actually be a case study of that: detached homes on Honshu (the main island) generally have poor insulation, in winter they tend to be quite cold and spot-heated (using kotatsu and kerosene space heaters, with heavy clothing).

On Hokkaido meanwhile, good insulation (including double or triple pane windows) and central heating are common (the island has insulation regs and there are loans dedicated to properly protecting against the cold), and inside temperatures tend to be cosy. It’s a regular occurrence that Hokkaido residents catch colds when visiting tokyo in winter, because they don’t have the habit of bundling up inside.

Though when it comes to Honshu, one of the justifications for the lack of insulation is the difficulty of keeping indoors drafty and dry during the extremely wet summer, to avoid the walls outright rotting on you.

[jve]

Ofcourse, it chills faster if you don't apply heating when its cold outside.

However that doesn't dictate inside temperature. Well, maybe if you heat with firewood - you will get high/low temperature rises/drops. But people just like 20+ inside. 22-23C for me is comfort. Currently 24C at office - higher is out of comfort, but happens.

Someone like lower temperatures. Someone wants to save some money and keeps temperature lower than comfort.

And yeah, warmer climate results in colder inside temperature, because houses are not very well insulated and may not have advanced heating systems. But that's just experience from few data points I know of (and some HN comments confirms that).