Abstract
This study compared building-related symptoms in personal and open plan offices, where high and low levels of control over the thermal environment were provided, respectively. The individualized approach in Norway provided every user with a personal office, where they had control over an openable window, door, blinds, and thermostat. In contrast, the open plan case studies in the United Kingdom provided control over openable windows and blinds only for limited occupants seated around the perimeter of the building, with users seated away from the windows having no means of environmental control. Air conditioning was deployed in the Norwegian case study buildings, while displacement ventilation and natural ventilation were utilized in the British examples. Field studies of thermal comfort were applied with questionnaires, environmental measurements, and interviews. Users’ health was better in the Norwegian model (28%), while the British model was much more energy efficient (up to 10 times). The follow-up interviews confirmed the effect of lack of thermal control on users’ health. A balanced appraisal was made of energy performance and users’ health between the two buildings.
Highlights
People spend most of their time indoors [1]
This study showed that occupants of two air-conditioned buildings suffered 28% less from building-related symptoms compared to offices where natural ventilation and displacement ventilation were in operation
This suggests that air conditioning was not responsible for building-related symptoms
Summary
People spend most of their time (i.e., over 80%) indoors [1]. their health is dependent on the quality of the indoor environment [1,2], which includes the thermal environment [3]. Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) is commonly used to describe poor indoor air quality in office buildings [5]. Sick Building Syndrome was identified in the early 1980s, as health-related issues in the workplace intensified, following the introduction of air conditioning in open plan offices [19]. There is a disagreement between researchers on whether mechanical ventilation and air conditioning in particular are responsible for ill health in buildings In this view the influence of other factors are ignored, such as the impact of the architectural design, which includes individual control over the thermal environment. This study investigated building-related symptoms in two workplace environments with high and low levels of thermal control: a Norwegian cellular and a British open plan office, respectively. The building performance and occupants’ health in the two buildings were compared
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