Abstract This paper is focused on background issues which currently underlie attempts to reconcile comfort with reduced consumption of fuels in buildings in Britain. Two specific topics are considered; first, developments which have taken place in environmental design and, second, those which have occurred in comfort research in this country over the past thirty years. Developments in both these fields are presented as having contributed to making the idea of habitable spaces in buildings in Britain synonymous with the notion of consuming finite fossil fuels. Physiologically-grounded, orthodox comfort theory is questioned as an adequate basis for understanding how people judge internal environments in buildings they occupy since social issues, concerned with what constitutes an acceptable environment, are also identified as significant. environment, are also identified as significant.