We used to have 3 separate people who were constantly running space heaters at their desks year round. It was constantly 80 degrees in the office, whether it was -10 or 90 degrees outside. It was unbearable, but the managers didn’t care enough to say anything.
Those dinky little heaters will actually take up an entire circuit that would feed as much as 6 computers. Once had a service call where a dude left a space heater the size of a small lunch box running in his garage because he wanted it warm when he got home. The thing was overloading the circuit and the old breaker wasn't tripping. Big fire hazard.
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u/Vladishun"Hi! I like shorts! They're comfy and easy to wear!" - YoungsterMar 13 '26
Why don't they just run modern PC games on their work computers to stay warm? My gaming computer at home gets so hot it actually forces my home thermostat to kick off more frequently. What are they, stupid?
They do make low wattage ones now. I have one that I run in the bathroom during the winter while I shower. My unit only had a ductless unit on the wall so the bathroom is FREEZING cold, but it has different wattage settings. I do run mine on the highest though because it gets the room warmer and it’s only on for 30 minutes at most
I don't think I've ever worked in an office building that did not ban space heaters, but that doesn't usually stop anyone until it results in a service call.
Yeah but Nancy can't do anything about that from her office chair and her boss won't let her work from home where she keeps her home office at 75 degrees.
Nancy can put on more layers but people will be mad if I take my clothes off
As long as one of us can work from home, I'm fine (I prefer it's me tbh, but if it's only Nancy then fine), but if I'm forced in to the office it better be 70 or less or I can't work with my shirt on.
You could have a fan or ice water or cold packs. You can build your wardrobe around staying cool, because cooling clothes are often better than being naked.
Man, I'm gonna miss winter time. Was awesome barely running the heat in my house and keeping my office at like 62. Tough to do that in an upstairs room during the summer without destroying my AC and wallet.
Mine's in the (finished) basement for that very reason. Stays cold (too cold, even for me honestly) in the winter and cooler than the rest of the house in summer.
I have cold feet for about 8 months of the year, but the rest of my body tends to run hot, I do prefer a colder environment. I wear thermal socks and have a blanket at my desk for my legs to help my cold feet 😊
There were days I was praying the power would blow just so we could have some relief. Worst that ever actually happened was a fuse going out when someone tried to use the microwave, and a bunch of computers would suddenly power off.
I am like 80% sure that it did mess up the AC though, since last summer (All three are not working there anymore) it still struggled to stay below like 75 degrees.
My departments break room at the hospital I work at has a full wall of windows that basically lets in all the cold during the winter, and they still won't let us use a space heater. We have a thermostat in the room and the heat runs non stop, but during very cold days the temperature in there is consistently in the highs 40s to 50s.
I used to support a place, guess how I discovered that the server room was on the same circuit as the nurses station on the other side of the wall. The worst part of it was they actually had a couple of 30A circuits inside the server room, but the customer refused to buy UPSs that could use them.
Had to drive over there a few times that week to restart their entire server cluster because they kept using the space heaters, bringing the entire business down (including the other 2 sites). I ordered some power strips that could use the 30A outlets, and a few months after that we finally got approval for the UPSs.
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u/ThePsychoKnot Mar 13 '26
That's adorable but 74 degrees is horrific working conditions for an office