The great Steve Mouzon, Florida-based New Urban designer, has a great post on his sustainability blog The Original Green about what he calls the “Thermostat Wars” and the ever-shrinking American comfort zone:

Ask any mechanical engineer to describe the impact of a 30 degree comfort range versus a 2 degree comfort range. She will tell you that a 2 degree comfort range requires the conditioning equipment to run basically all the time, because outdoor temperatures are almost never within that 2 degree range. And if the equipment is going to be running almost all the time, why even have windows that are operable? So they seal up the buildings where you can’t ever open a window to catch a breeze.

A 30 degree range, on the other hand, means that there are several months per year when the air outside is within the comfort range at least part of the day. So if the building is designed cleverly enough, it can condition itself for most of the year in many places, requiring mechanical conditioning only in more extreme weather.

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So what’s the most effective way of assuring that people want to expand their comfort range?  The best known way is to entice them to go outdoors.

He then continues, relating how his own feelings of comfort in various temperatures changed after he moved to a walkable neighborhood and spent much of his time out in it.  It’s an interesting read, as is most everything on The Original Green.  Its take on sustainability is, essentially, that the foundation of sustainability is in creating smartly designed, walkable, self-sustaining places that people love to be out in.