Perceived Air Quality and Productivity in the Office Building

Abstract

Problems of perceived quality of the environment find its reason especially when monitoring performance and productivity of work. Thus, verification of the degree of environmental quality impact on employee performance comes into consideration. The results of two independent studies involving 50 subjects, and using similar procedures and blind exposures have shown that increasing the air quality (by decreasing the pollution load or by increasing the ventilation rate, with otherwise constant indoor climate conditions) can improve the performance of simulated office work (text typing, addition and proof-reading). Performance testing was performed in the open space office of an office building at three air exchange intensities: n1 = 0.5 h−1, n2 = 1.5 h−1 and n3 = 2.5 h−1. Other physical environmental parameters that could have affected the assessors’ performance were maintained in the range: indoor air temperature θai = 22 - 24 °C, relative air humidity φai = 40 - 60%, air velocity vai ≤ 0.25 m.s−1, noise level load L = 40 - 50 dB (A), daylight - diffuse radiation component. The present results document the productivity benefits of providing good indoor air quality and indicate that providing indoor air of a higher ventilation level will increase productivity.