Thermal comfort and productivity - Evaluation of workplace environment in a task conditioned office

The environment of workplace in an office involved in creative work was evaluated in 2005 and 2006. The M Company has installed partition based task/ambient conditioning systems (TAC) and several environment-friendly systems, such as double-skin and thermal-storage structures. It was intended to investigate the influence of the worker's behavior and task conditioning on worker's thermal comfort and productivity. In this survey, immediate thermal environment and worker's behavior were measured, and occupants' surveys of thermal comfort and feeling of fatigue were conducted. We found that both activity level of occupant and exposed thermal environment is greatly different one by one. It is suggested that an increase in metabolic rate according to worker's behavior influenced on their thermal comfort. Based on the knowledge obtained from this investigation, needs for TAC are discussed.