60% of people get angry when someone changes their thermostat
60% of our survey participants reported feeling upset when someone changed the temperature on their thermostat, although those who were 55 and older were less likely to get upset by this. People who tried to change the thermostat when their partner wasn’t looking (like those saboteurs mentioned in the previous section) were 11% more likely to get upset when others adjusted the thermostat.
What can you do about it
“Try talking to your partner in a way that builds empathy around your experience. Pick a time when you’re not emotional about the conflict to talk. Explain to them that you want to share how you feel when it’s too hot or too cold and share in detail how that feels in your body, as well as how it impacts you. Then, tell your partner that it’s important for you to also know what their experience is and how they feel and give them the space to explain. By acknowledging the discomfort from a place of curiosity and empathy you’re more likely to come up with a solution together,” states Jessica Baum.
If the argument isn’t necessarily about comfort, but about something like cost or environmental impact, Baum suggests making fair compromises that offset these things. For example, “maybe you keep the air on and cut it back a little, but not as much as the environmentally concerned partner wants and the compromise can be getting solar panels and fans. It can also be picking something completely different to change in the home that helps the great cause, like not using plastic bags, recycling more, finding other ways to save energy in the home.There are a lot of creative ways to keep homes cool in summer and warm in winter. All of these compromises are decisions you should make together.”
It turns out that thermostats really are a hot button issue for many people. Overall, the majority of our survey participants (54%) reported that they’ve argued because they were uncomfortable with the temperature in their home. While comfort was the main factor for the thermostat arguments, there were others at stake as well, like people who were concerned about the cost and those who were worried about the environmental impact of overheating or overcooling their homes: 32% said they were concerned about the cost of running the AC/heat and 14% said they were worried about the environmental impact of overheating or overcooling their homes.