Summary
The performance of office and school work is affected by indoor environmental conditions and by the features of buildings that influence indoor environmental conditions. Work performance may be improved from a few percent to possibly as much as 10% by providing superior indoor environmental quality (IEQ). The economic benefits of the work performance improvements will often far outweigh the costs of providing better IEQ. The main findings of related scientific research are as follows:
Temperature and Office Work Performance: The performance (speed and accuracy) of office work tasks is maximized when the air temperature is approximately 71 °F. As the indoor air temperature rises above or falls below 71 °F, performance decreases. As the indoor air temperature decreases between 71 °F and 65 °F, performance drops, on average, by 0.37% per each 1 °F drop in temperature. As indoor air temperature increases between 71 °F and 80 °F, performance drops, on average, by 0.43% per each 1 °F increase in temperature. However, temperature changes near the optimum temperature of 71 °F have a smaller impact on performance. These numbers are estimates of the average relationship of temperature with work performance based on a statistical analysis of published data for a range of types of work and these estimates have considerable uncertainty.
Temperature and School Work Performance: In a recently completed high quality experimental study, the average speed of completing academic work, based on monitoring of performance of eight simulated school work tasks, decreased by approximately 1.1% per each 1 °F as temperatures increased from 68 °F to 77 °F. The number of errors in school work was not significantly affected by temperature changes in this temperature range.
Ventilation Rates and Office Work Performance: Performance (speed and accuracy) of typical office tasks improves with increased ventilation rate. For initial ventilation rates between 14 and 30 cfm per person, the average performance increases by approximately 0.8% per 10 cfm per person increase in ventilation rate. At higher ventilation rates, the average performance increase is smaller, approximately 0.3% per 10 cfm per person increase in ventilation rate. For ventilation rates less than 14 cfm per person, performance increases with ventilation rate seem likely; however, sufficient data are not yet available to confirm this hypothesis.
Ventilation and School Performance: Increases of 5% to 10% in aspects of student performance may be associated with doubling the ventilation rate when rates are at or below minimum ventilation standards (15 cfm per student). However, data relating ventilation rate with school performance are not extensive.
Indoor Pollutant Sources and Work Performance: A few laboratory and field studies have measured approximately 4% to 16% increases in the performance (speed or accuracy) of selected office work tasks [e.g., typing, addition errors (in one study), speed of call center work] when indoor pollutant sources were removed, while performance of other tasks (e.g., proof-reading, creative thinking) was not significantly affected by source removal. The magnitude of performance improvements from pollutant source removal or exclusion is likely to depend highly on the source characteristics and building ventilation rate.
Perceived Indoor Air Quality and Performance: Better perceived indoor air quality is correlated with improvements in office work tasks, with approximately a 1% increase in task performance per each 10% decrease in the percentage of occupants dissatisfied with indoor air quality. However, it is not known whether poorer perceived air quality causes a reduction in work performance or is simply correlated with performance because the same indoor environmental conditions affect both performance and perceived air quality.
Daylight, View, and School and Work Performance: There is some evidence that more daylight or a view to outdoors improves office and school work performance, but the available data are limited and findings are inconsistent.
Lighting Levels, Lighting Quality, and Work Performance: Available data are too limited to draw conclusions about the impacts of typical changes in indoor lighting levels and lighting quality on performance of office and school work. Significant impacts on performance are most likely for subjects with poor or uncorrected vision.
Cost Effectiveness of Improving Indoor Environments to Increase Productivity: Large paybacks can be expected from many changes in building design, operation, and maintenance that improve worker performance because worker salaries and benefits greatly exceed the costs of providing and operating buildings. Example cost-benefit analyses indicate that benefits may often exceed costs by a factor of 10 or more.