There is a silent war being fought every day in Italian homes. It makes no noise, but it leaves victims on the couch, heated arguments, and bills that make you sweat... even in winter. It’s the war of the ideal temperature. On one side, there are those who walk around the house in a t-shirt in January “because I’m the one paying.” On the other, those who sleep with a blanket in July “because air conditioning is bad for you.” In the middle, a thermostat tortured more than a joystick during a FIFA final.
The truth is that the ideal temperature at home isn’t a magic number that works for everyone, nor is it a matter of personal taste. It’s a delicate balance between comfort, health, common sense, and energy efficiency. And no, it can’t be solved by randomly turning the knob up or down every two hours.
Let’s start with an uncomfortable truth: our body is much smarter than the way we use our systems. The problem isn’t that we’re cold or hot, but that we often live in poorly designed (or managed) environments. Homes that lose heat like a sieve, overheated rooms in winter and frozen ones in summer, spaces where you go from the North Pole to the Sahara in three meters of hallway. And then we wonder why we’re never comfortable.
The famous “ideal temperature” isn’t an obsession of maniacal technicians. It’s a real condition that affects how we sleep, how productive we are, how we breathe, and even how much we argue. Because yes, when you’re constantly hot or cold, you become a worse person. More irritable. More tired. More likely to yell at the thermostat as if it were alive.
In winter, the big mistake is thinking that more heat means more comfort. In reality, exceeding certain thresholds means dry air, headaches, disturbed sleep, and that “stuffy” feeling that makes you want to open the windows... undoing all the heating you just paid for. It’s no coincidence that many people sleep poorly in overheated homes: the body, to truly rest, needs a slightly cooler environment, not a tropical greenhouse.
In summer, the opposite happens. You turn on the air conditioner and set it to polar temperatures, convinced it’s the only way to survive. The result? Drafts, stiff necks, out-of-season colds, and the feeling of leaving the house as if you’re stepping into an oven. Here too, the problem isn’t the heat outside, but the artificially created thermal shock inside.
But temperature isn’t just a number. It’s also about how it’s distributed, maintained, and perceived. You can have 20 degrees on the thermostat and still feel cold if the walls are cold, if there are drafts, if the air is humid, or if the heat isn’t uniform. And this is where the brain comes into play. The one that designs, insulates, installs, and manages the spaces.
A well-renovated house doesn’t need extremes. It doesn’t force you to choose between a sweater and a tank top depending on the mood of the heating. It maintains a stable, consistent, natural temperature. And it does so without having to constantly “push” the systems. Because when the building envelope works, when the insulation is done well, and when the systems are properly sized, comfort becomes the norm, not an occasional reward.
Then there’s another big issue that’s often ignored: humidity. You can have the perfect temperature, but if the air is too dry or too humid, comfort goes out the window. In winter, air that’s too dry irritates the airways and makes you feel cold even with the heating on. In summer, high humidity makes you sweat even when you’re still. And guess what? You raise or lower the temperature to try to compensate... making things worse.
That’s why talking about ideal temperature without talking about air quality, ventilation, and systems is like talking about a diet while eating only sweets. It works on paper, but not in reality.
Smart temperature management comes from solutions that work continuously and discreetly, not from extreme interventions. Modern systems, precise adjustments, systems that take into account not only the degrees but also how we live in the house. Because a bedroom doesn’t have the same needs as a living room, and a bathroom should never be treated like just any hallway.
And then there’s the hardest factor to control: habit. Because often it’s not the house that’s wrong, but the way we use it. Turning the heating on and off like it’s a light, setting different temperatures every hour, opening the windows with the system on “to change the air.” All perfectly normal things, but all enemies of true comfort and savings.
The ideal temperature, the one that makes you feel good without thinking about it, isn’t achieved by forcing the systems, but by using your head even before technology. It’s a matter of design, balance, and awareness. It’s understanding that the house shouldn’t adapt to our mood swings, but accompany us consistently.
In short, the perfect temperature isn’t a battle to be won by degrees. It’s a strategy to be built. When it works, you don’t notice it. You don’t argue. You don’t sweat. You don’t shiver. You live. And the thermostat, finally, can stop being the family’s public enemy number one.
