Thermal discomfort is a very serious problem, occurring far too often in the office workspace, especially when changes are made to the arrangement of workstations in relation to the conditions originally designed.

A very common situation is such a modification of the working space, during which the factors influencing the thermal comfort of employees are not taken into account, which may cause, for example, a feeling of draft if the desk is placed too close to the diffuser or if the device is not mounted on the appropriate height. The parameters of the supplied air also change when there are more people in the working room than assumed in the design, which unfortunately is not uncommon in practice.

In a moderate environment, there is no threat to the health of employees, however, the environmental conditions in the rooms may be perceived by humans as uncomfortable, and although ensuring the feeling of thermal comfort affects the quality and efficiency of the work performed. Contrary to appearances, local thermal discomfort occurs very often, but it is not easy to define. Employees complain that „something is wrong”, but they cannot precisely name and characterize their feelings.

The main factors affecting the feeling of thermal comfort in closed rooms include the temperature of the surrounding air, the amount of heat generated by the body as a result of the activity performed and metabolic processes (energy expenditure), clothing, temperature of the surrounding surfaces, relative speed of air flow in the zone of residence, relative humidity of the surrounding air.

The PN-EN 15251:2012 standard recommends the classification of rooms depending on the level of expectations regarding the microclimate conditions in the room. Newly built and modernized office premises correspond to category II (normal level of expectations), while the existing ones correspond to category III (moderate level of expectations).

Depending on the choice of the object category, the PN-EN 15251:2012 standard recommends that the air temperature in winter and summer should be as follows (class I, the highest comfort:

• class I: winter 21°C; summer 25.5°C;

• class II: winter 20°C; summer 26°C;

• class III: winter 18°C; summer 27°C.

The PN-EN 15251:2012 standard gives the recommended value of relative humidity in the winter period in the range of 15-70%.

Source of information: CIOP and National Research Institute

Source:https://www.seka.pl/comfort-heating-in-office-rooms/

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