It’s not just you: restaurants, malls, and offices on steamy summer days really are kept colder than necessary. Air conditioning is as much about dehumidification as it is about cooling, especially in hot, humid climates like the U.S. South, where buildings can be fertile ground for hazardous molds.
“The reason they blast the air conditioner so much is because they’re trying to reduce the humidity,” Sorin Grama, co-founder and CEO of Transaera, told TechCrunch. “In some cases in commercial buildings, the air is so cold that they have to reheat it back up.”