Do all desktop thermometers suck?

Drake Chambers

This is a trivial thing but it's irritated me for years.

I've had three digital desktop thermometers over the last ten years and none of them seem to be of any practical use. The idea originally was to have some objective measurement I could point to when I complained to facility management that the office was too cold or too hot, but these damn things never seem to reflect how it feels in the office. The one I have now sits on my desk and always reads 72 or 73 F, whether it's freezing or sweltering where I'm sitting, generally two feet away. I've moved the thing around to different surfaces and have never gotten anything useful out of it. I know it's not completely broken because I can hold the thing in my lap and see the temperature go up into the 80's after a few minutes.

So how do these devices actually work? Is it true that the temperature at my desktop is always 72F but if I suspended it from the ceiling on a string and floated it next to my head would it read properly?

Anyone out there have a desktop thermometer that they feel actually works?

EggyToast

Take the thing outside with you, or home, and see if it's still working. In general, a particular pocket of air may be a consistent temperature, and this is doubly bad when that pocket is right by the thermostat. I had a similar problem at my last job, and I brought in a battery-powered alarm clock that also read the temperature. These are usually $10 or so at Target. In my case, it read the temperature just fine, and when it got to 76+F I'd usually contact the building manager. Same for 68F. The thermostats in the building were in notoriously stupid places, though, so often if you put the thermometer right on the thermostat, you'd see that it was in a weird pocket of air that didn't really change temperature. Your desk may be in a similar situation, and what I sometimes did was place my clock/thermometer on top of my cube wall.

Of course, you could be at exactly 72/73 but have wind blowing sometimes, which can affect how you feel without affecting the actual temp. Similarly, your body's metabolism can affect how you feel -- I often feel cold before lunch, since I haven't eaten anything, and then comfortably warm afterwards, even though it's the same temperature in the office.

XArchangelX

Maybe get a fan for your desk. I think it help even out the weird pocket of air thing, because a guy in the cube next to me had one on at all times, blowing on him when it was hot, blowing away when it was cold. It seemed to even things out for the immediate area, too, because I would be fine, temp wise, but people would be walking by from a few cubes away bitching about the heat/cold.

zepherin

See if it's calibrated, put it in ice with a bit of water, let it sit for a few minutes, if it gets close to 32 degrees it's calibrated and your the problem not the thermometer.