Cold Comfort: How Building Automation Keeps Occupants Happy this Winter

Put an end to office thermostat battles while keeping your occupants comfortable and productive with the help of building automation.

We’re all familiar with the office temperature wars: the team runs hot versus the team runs cold. Not only is it frustrating to mitigate thermostat skirmishes, but it’s also unproductive: a 2014 study found that men and women waste between six and eight and a half minutes a day on temperature adjustments! Not only is time wasted, but productivity can drop up to 10% in a too-chilly office. One solution? Building automation. 

Office comfort standards

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety recognizes the importance of keeping your office occupants happy. They even have a term for it: “thermal comfort,” meaning someone is comfortable when wearing a regular amount of clothing—not dressed for an arctic expedition.  

The Canadian Standards Association and ASHRAE recommendations when it comes to optimal temperatures for an office in the winter are 22C, with an acceptable range being 20C - 23.5C. 

The important factors in ambient temperature

There are multiple factors that contribute to the temperature of a room and the thermal comfort of its occupants, some easier to control than others. Some of those considerations are:

• Number of occupants in the room
• Air temperature
• Radiant temperature (i.e., heat transfer from object to person)
• Solar loading (if the sun is warming something)
• Air movement
• Humidity

That’s a lot to control for, right? And to add to the complications, people have their own preferences for room temps. Don’t worry; you won’t need to hire a full-time temperature regulator. 

Building automation solutions for the office

Using Internet of Things sensors and devices, building automation systems technologies can monitor for factors and regulate temperature without you lifting a finger. These devices are able to automatically adjust for:

• Humidity
• Number of occupants
• Lighting
• Airflow and quality (learn more about improving air quality in the winter)

On top of the set-it-and-forget-it nature of these systems, automatically regulating environmental factors in your building optimizes energy use, helping your bottom line. Troubleshooting and preventative maintenance are also easily communicated and handled thanks to these innovations. 

You can put an end to the thermostat wars by contacting your local building automation contractor today. 

Work with a people-first company that’s on the cutting edge of building automation, HVAC and electrical in the Thompson-Okanagan. See how Kimco can help today.