Record-breaking heat domes have already had millions of us sweating this summer, but are you still schlepping a jacket or sweater to work? Maybe you keep one stashed in your desk, because despite the heat outside, your office is freezing! 

(MORE: What is a heat dome?)

It’s not just your workplace; it’s happening all across the U.S. It’s called overcooling and it’s costing the country an estimated $10 billion in wasted energy every year.

Start with the thermostat

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) sets the standard for indoor climates. It recommends indoor temperatures between 73 and 79 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer. That’s the range where the average office worker should feel comfortable without a jacket.

However, most offices are set below that. Commercial buildings often sit at around 71 to 73 degrees. Why? It’s mostly about complaints. Building managers have learned that one hot day generates loud complaints, while many of us suffer quietly when it’s colder.

Vent air is even colder

Now here’s why it gets even colder. Central air systems don’t work by matching the target temperature. They pump cold air in and let it mix — averaging out to the number on the thermostat. 

The air blasting out of the vent is actually 10 to 15 degrees colder, so if your desk is near it, you’re freezing!

We're cooling offices no one is in

The COVID pandemic and hybrid work reshaped how offices are now used, and most commercial HVAC systems haven’t kept up.

If the building is scheduled to cool 40,000 square feet from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., it does that whether there are 400 people inside, or just 40.

The numbers, in New York at least, are striking. Data from the Urban Green Council showed that during the pandemic, NYC office occupancy dropped by 60% — but energy use in those same buildings dropped by only 14%.

(MORE: The scary science of a hot car)

Whose body are we trying to cool?

Most office buildings still use a temperature formula built around the metabolic rate and comfort for a 154-pound, 40-year-old man, modeled in the 1960s.

It’s one big reason women often feel colder at work.

A 2015 study in Nature Climate Change found that formula overestimates women's metabolic heat production by up to 35%. 

But it doesn't just mean women. It includes anyone with a lower metabolic baseline than the 1960s reference — older workers, smaller-framed men, anyone whose body just runs a little cooler. 

New buildings are adapting

According to JPMorgan Chase, its new headquarters in New York uses a system called swirl diffusers. The floor-mounted vents deliver AC in small zones, so individual workers can control the temperature in their workspace.

It's part of a broader shift in commercial HVAC design. Some systems now cool zones only when they detect people, others are better at adjusting to the temperature and humidity outside and the time of day.

Retrofitting older buildings isn’t cheap, so many of us will just have to keep that sweater handy.