It is not a claim, it is a fact. You put a thermometer close to a heat source and it will give a higher reading.
One place I used to work, the landlord (who paid the heating / a/c bill), would come into the office two or 3 times per week to check the thermostat setting to see if anyone had messed with it. Nobody had... but, the chief draftsman had a small fan that he directed toward it in the winter time, and a drafting lamp that he focused on it in the summer time, thus making the system kick on to make it much more comfortable.
When I was a youngster and wanted to stay home from school, my mom used the old thermometer test. If I had a fever, I could stay home. If I didn't, I had to go to school. It sure was easy taking the thermometer out of my mouth and holding it near the lamp on the end table. That worked until one time my mom came back into the room before I had a chance to shake the thermometer down from its 109 degree reading!
There seem to be more and more instances today of people in positions of authority ignoring facts and basing their decisions and actions on invalid data. It's really a shame that it's come to this.