thefreemanmag.substack.com/p/the-politics-of-cooling
2 corrections found
The limit has now been reduced, but only to 25°C/77°F.
Spain’s 2022 27°C emergency rule expired in 2023, and Spain’s standing building regulation sets cooled occupied spaces at not below 26°C, not 25°C.
Full reasoning
This sentence misstates Spain’s current rule.
Spain’s 2022 emergency energy-saving decree did impose a 27°C minimum for cooled public/commercial spaces, but that rule was temporary. The consolidated BOE text says the obligations in article 29 had effect only until 1 November 2023.
Separately, Spain’s standing building-thermal regulation (RITE) says that in cooled occupied rooms using conventional energy, "la temperatura del aire ... no será inferior a 26 ºC" — i.e. the air temperature may not be set below 26°C, not 25°C.
So the article’s claim that the Spanish limit "has now been reduced ... to 25°C/77°F" is incorrect on both counts: the cited 2022 emergency limit did not remain in force, and the general regulatory floor is 26°C rather than 25°C.
2 sources
- Real Decreto-ley 14/2022, de 1 de agosto (texto consolidado)
Disposición final decimoséptima: "Las obligaciones de los apartados uno y cuatro del artículo 29 ... tendrán vigencia hasta el 1 de noviembre de 2023"; y "Las obligaciones del apartado dos del artículo 29 ... tendrán vigencia hasta el 1 de noviembre de 2023".
- Real Decreto 1027/2007, Reglamento de Instalaciones Térmicas en los Edificios (RITE), texto consolidado
IT 3.8.2: "La temperatura del aire en los recintos refrigerados no será inferior a 26 ºC, cuando para ello se requiera consumo de energía convencional para la generación de frío por parte del sistema de refrigeración".
Architect Dominique Perrault planned to house much of the library’s collection in four 290-foot, L-shaped glass towers intended to look like open books.
The François-Mitterrand site’s towers are about 80 meters high, not 290 feet. Official BnF materials list them at 80 m per tower.
Full reasoning
The height given here is wrong.
The Bibliothèque nationale de France’s official page for the François-Mitterrand site lists the tower height as 80 meters per tower. The BnF’s 30th-anniversary press dossier likewise gives "4 tours de 80 m de hauteur". Eighty meters is about 262 feet, not 290 feet.
So while the description of the towers as book-like glass forms is broadly right, the specific height in the article is overstated by roughly 28 feet (about 8.4 meters).
2 sources
- Le site François-Mitterrand | BnF - Site institutionnel
Chiffres clés: "80 mètres de hauteur par tour" and "22 étages par tour".
- La BnF François-Mitterrand célèbre ses 30 ans – dossier de presse
The BnF press dossier lists: "4 tours de 80 m de hauteur".