Winter: The Annual Thermostat Battle Commences

The days are getting colder but inside our homes the temperature is rising as the annual thermostat battles hot up.

The joys of physiological differences

Those of you who live in the southern hemisphere are probably not impacted by the annual cold weather trials and tribulations that many in the northern portion of our planet 'enjoy' every winter. Lucky you! Particularly, as a survey in the UK last year found that 53 percent of couples argue over the heating and that eight in 10 women admitted to secretly turning up the thermostat.

There’s simply “no such thing as a couple who wants their house the same temperature”, said Zoe Williams in The Guardian. Instead, couples spend the colder months “stealth-adjusting the temperature until it gets stealth-adjusted back”.

Whilst the “central heating battle of sexes” may have already begun this year, said Nick Harding in The Telegraph, this is “only to be expected” because there’s “plenty of scientific evidence to show that men and women react differently to temperature”. And this, of course, is the nub of the matter. A study published in The Lancet found that women’s hands can be significantly colder, roughly 4C (39F)on average compared with men, and a 2025 review on Building and Environment concluded that in cold environments women feel significantly colder than men, and have lower skin temperature, which points to “genuine physiological differences” between the sexes.

Women also have “less muscle, which is a natural heat producer”, more body fat, which can “block the flow of blood carrying heat to the skin and extremities” and as they are generally smaller than men, they have a “higher skin surface to volume ratio, causing them to lose heat more quickly through the skin”.

So, the argument for women is simple: stick to your guns “next time you find yourself arguing over the thermostat with your husband”, because “there is plenty of biological ammo to back up your position”.

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