Comfort Conditions

[mrsbrown]

A bit of background:

I wrote this yesterday in a quiet moment at work and promised myself I would post it here.
Mr Fanger is the expert on comfort and I should probably read exactly what he has researched and written, but I know the industry just uses the comfort conditions he developed and doesn't think about the background to his research.
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One of my pet peeves is the overconditioning of offices, particularly wrt the comfort conditions. The standard temperature/humidity levels set for AC are based on men and their standard level of clothing.

a project/piece of research I wouldn't mind investigating is as follows:

1. collect temperature and humidity data from a building management system




3. devise a quick questionaire (probably web based) to be filled out when a worker feels uncomfortable. Just requires worker to input:

• hot or cold (maybe degrees of discomfort)


• what clothing they are wearing.

So we could work out a set of comfort conditions and maybe model them.

The computer questionaire would be best run in offices with computers on every desk, so we could plot which people are actually at work and might need a pop up to ask the worker what they're wearing that day, so there can be good correlation between clothing level and perceptions of comfort. So assuming that if people don't answer they are comfortable. hmm, that may not work.

Would probably also require some allowance/correlation to be developed for:

• level of radiant cooling/heating available


• level of control worker feels in doing their job


• access to natural ventilation


• connection with outside conditions (people are less likely to feel cold/hot on sunny/snowing outside days, weird huh?)

Maybe if this was only investigated in "standard" offices - no opening windows, no control of comfort conditions, I wouldn't need to worry about the above. I would still need to take account of level of control experienced by the worker in their job. Did you know that secretaries/receptionists are most likely to complain about the air conditioning in their workplace?

Comments

[damned-colonial.livejournal.com]

You think office environments are bad, you'd hate semi-public spaces like shopping centres here. They put the heat at a temperature that's comfortable for the retail workers wearing thin shirts, and ignore the fact that people are coming in off the street (or bus or whatever) wearing:

* a long-sleeved tshirt
* a jumper
* a heavily insulated parka
* long johns
* thick socks
* insulated boots
* hat
* gloves
* scarf

You'd think they could tell the retail workers to WEAR A DAMN JUMPER in the winter when they work, so the shoppers don't roast, but noooooo. And coatroom facilities are vanishingly rare, though I did come across one once.

My problem at the office at the moment is that we have a huge feature window thing, kind of arch-shaped and high up at one end of our big loft type space. My desk is right under said window. Said window is actually well-sealed, but isn't double glassed, so it radiates cold which trickles down the back of my neck all day. I always wear a jumper in the office now, and sometimes when it's very bad I put my scarf or coat on too. It's only around -10C at the moment... I hate to think what it'll be like in February or so, when it's -30C.

K.