Drinking a lot of tea, wearing a thick sweater: this is how secretary Lonneke stays warm in the office. She does not want her last name in the newspaper for privacy reasons. For the past two weeks, the heating in her office has been turned off as much as possible, with a view to costs. The foundation she works for is housed in an old, monumental building, with high ceilings and single glazing. “It is unbearable here, but the high energy costs have not been budgeted for this year, and there is no reserve pot to draw from.” The only option: save by keeping the heating off as much as possible. “I understand why that is necessary, but after three hours of sitting still behind a computer you start to feel it. Sometimes I still turn on the heating, otherwise it is impossible to do. My employer thinks that’s okay, as long as we deal with it consciously.”
The heating is lower than before in more offices. If not to save costs, then to combat global warming or to become less dependent on Russian gas. With a view to the latter, the government made an emphatic appeal to companies this spring to save on the lighting and heating of their buildings. She herself set a good example by turning down the thermostat in the government offices: from 21 to 19 degrees.
The war in Ukraine prompted IT service provider ilionx (more than 1,200 employees, thirteen branches) to be more aware of energy consumption, says management consultant and CSR manager Jorick Bots. He is responsible for making his company more sustainable. “We want to ‘subsidize’ Russia less and also reduce our impact on the climate,” he says. In October, all office managers were therefore asked to lower the temperature “at least by half a degree”. The heating in most offices is now between 19 and 20 degrees.
No nocebo effect
The heating at the Delft head office of software supplier TOPdesk (900 employees, 370 of whom are in the Netherlands) has also been reduced from October, from 21 to 19.5 degrees. “We wanted it to be a bit lower, but we also have to deal with two other tenants in this building,” says facility and sustainability coordinator Maryse Mertens. “If this goes well, we will hopefully lower it to 19 degrees in 2023,” she says.
Her company still has an ‘old’ energy contract running until the end of this year. As of 1 January, the sharply increased energy costs will become clearly noticeable in the wallet. Mertens considers cost savings through a lower temperature setting incidental. “Our main reason is that we want to do better as a company in the field of sustainability. Although I think the cost savings have helped convince the other tenants in the building.”
To prevent a ‘nocebo’ effect – if employees expect a lower temperature, they already feel more cold – TOPdesk has not shared the temperature reduction with the staff. “What you know is more noticeable. But if employees now indicate that it is colder, we know that it really is.”
So far no signals have been received that it has been noticed. “Although that may also have to do with the fact that it hasn’t been very cold in the past month and the heating hasn’t had to work really hard yet,” says Mertens.
Ten days to get used to
In recent decades, people have outsourced the temperature regulation of the body to buildings, says Boris Kingma, TNO researcher in the field of thermophysiology. Anyone who wants to be more aware of energy will have to turn that around: “Healthy people can easily adapt to an office temperature of 19 degrees with behavior and clothing, for example by moving more, working standing up or wearing extra clothing. Anyone who is 10 percent more active on a day quickly compensates for a degree cooler air temperature. An extra layer of clothing can also make a difference. You may experience cold for the first few days, but after about ten days the body learns to deal with it.”
Read also: Save energy? With these tips you can get started right away
Although it’s not that easy for everyone. For example, cold can be detrimental to people with heart problems, because it closes blood vessels. That makes it harder for the heart to pump blood. Short people and people with less muscle mass also generally have more difficulty staying warm in a cold environment.
There is no single ideal temperature to update, explains Kingma. Several factors determine what is best for a person, including individual personality traits, environment (weather or indoor climate), activity level, and clothing. “The guidelines on how employers could calculate this were once included in the law, but somewhere in the past twenty or thirty years they were scrapped to simplify working conditions.”
It has now been established that an employer must do everything possible to prevent an unhealthy situation. What does that mean concretely? “This question used to be less important, but in this new situation there may be a need for some kind of independent ‘referee’ who can calculate an ideal temperature, in view of the four different factors. That would create clarity for both employer and employee.”
Closer to a radiator
What if employees start complaining about the cold en masse? Mertens of TOPdesk: “As an employer, we are obliged to listen to our employees. Our advantage is that we have two air flows: floor boxes from which fresh air comes and radiators. If employees feel very cold, we can, for example, experiment with workplaces closer to a radiator.”
Ilionx’s CSR manager Bots has received few complaints so far. “Perhaps we have all become accustomed to a temperature that is higher than necessary. This is an excellent opportunity to experiment. A few have noticed that it is a bit colder in the office, but as soon as you explain why the heating is lower, you notice a lot of understanding.”
This concept will especially continue to exist if not only savings are made on heating, but other measures are also taken to reduce energy consumption. At TOPdesk, the temperature reduction is part of a broader package of sustainability measures. For example, the fleet is now largely electric, intermediate meters are being installed to better manage energy consumption and the company works with timers that automatically switch off all heating and lighting at seven o’clock in the evening. “The last thing you want is to be that office building that has the lights on all weekend.”
ilionx also works with sensors that turn off lights. “If a room is not used, the lighting switches off automatically.” In a few months, Bots wants to see what the effect of the temperature reduction is on costs and consumption. The temperature may then drop even further, although that will not become a hard policy. Bots: “The office can also be a place for employees to come to, so that they can turn off the heating at home during the day. We don’t want to discourage that.”
A version of this article also appeared in the December 7, 2022 newspaper