Room temperature

Room temperature is a general term describing common indoor temperatures. It is usually in the range of 20 °C (68 °F or 293 K) to 25 °C (77 °F or 298 K).

Comfort levels

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has listings for suggested temperatures and air flow rates in different types of buildings and different environmental circumstances. A comfortable room temperature depends on individual needs and other factors.^{[citation needed]}

According to the West Midlands Public Health Observatory (UK), an adequate level of warmth for older people is 21 °C (70 °F) in the living room and 18 °C (64 °F) in other occupied rooms, although most people (at least in the UK) will find this quite cold; 24 °C (75 °F) is stated as the maximum comfortable room temperature.

Owing to variations in humidity and likely clothing, recommendations for summer and winter may vary; one for summer is 23 °C (73 °F) to 26 °C (79 °F), with that for winter being 19 °C (66 °F) to 21 °C (70 °F), although by other considerations the maximum should be below 24 °C (75 °F) – for sick building syndrome avoidance, below 22 °C (72 °F).

Ambient versus room temperature

Room temperature implies a temperature inside a temperature-controlled building. Ambient temperature simply means "the temperature of the surroundings" and will be the same as room temperature indoors. In many languages, such as Spanish, there is an expression for ambient temperature, but no distinct translation for room temperature.

See also

• Ambient food
• Psychrometrics, the study of moist air
• International Standard Atmosphere