Room Temperature Definition

To the average person, room temperature is the thermometer reading of the room. In science and industry, the temperature is defined. However, not everyone uses the same value.

Room temperature is a range of temperatures that denotes comfortable habitation for humans. Across this temperature range, a person isn't either hot or cold when wearing ordinary clothing. The definition of the temperature range is somewhat different for science and engineering compared with climate control. For climate control, the range is also different depending on whether it's summer or winter.

In science, 300 K (27 C or 80 F) can also be used as room temperature for easy calculations when using absolute temperature. Other common values are 298 K (25 C or 77 F) and 293 K (20 C or 68 F).

For climate control, a typical room temperature range is from 15 C (59 F) to 25 C (77 F). People tend to accept a slightly higher room temperature in the summer and lower value in the winter, based on the clothing they would wear outdoors.

Ambient temperature refers to the temperature of the surroundings. This might or might not be a comfortable room temperature.