12

Advanced Technology for Smart Buildings

requirements, cleaning, training of staff, management of contractors, and

so forth. Data from organizations such as BOMA and the International Fa-
cility Management Association (IFMA) allow building owners to compare
the operations of their building with other comparable buildings to evalu-
ate building performance. For example, IFMA can provide information on
gross and rentable square footage by industry type and facility use, square
footage per occupant, janitorial costs and staffing, maintenance costs, roads
and grounds costs, utility costs, life and safety costs, emergency and di-
saster planning costs, facility management information technology costs,
employee amenities costs and best practices. So one way to evaluate the
operational performance of a building is to gather operational data on the
building and compare it to the operational metrics of similar buildings.

2.3  Productivity and Satisfaction of Building Occupants

Buildings enable their occupants to work, play, meet, shop, sleep, eat, social-
ize, educate, learn and a host of other activities. One performance criteria
of a building should be how well it succeeds in enabling its occupants. This
involves the comfort of the occupants, both physically and psychologically.
The physical part is straightforward, involving thermal comfort, appropriate
lighting and air distribution, workspace layouts and the technology systems
to to make the occupants’ tasks easier. These technology systems might
include systems for digital signage, Wi-Fi, in-building cell phone coverage,
asset location systems, audio video systems, and so forth. The physiological
effect may relate to the building’s image, appearance, and aesthetics.
Another measure of building performance is the productivity of build-
ing occupants. The largest effect on productivity over the last several de-
cades has been the penetration of IT technology and the Internet which
reduces the time to access information, perform tasks and communicate.
The workspace itself also plays a very important role. In a workplace sur-
vey conducted by a major architectural company, they found that effective
workplace design directly correlated to improved business performance.
Copyright © 2016. Artech House. All rights reserved.

The architect created a Workplace Performance Index that accounted for

the criticality of the work mode, the time spent on the work and the ef-
fectiveness of the space for the particular work mode (work modes are ac-
tivities such as collaboration, focus and concentration, learning and social-
izing). This study accounted for the physical attributes of the space: layout,
lighting, air, storage, furniture and access/privacy. What they found was
that top-performing companies had workplaces with higher performance
indices. They also found employees in workplaces with higher performance
indices had greater job satisfaction, organizational commitment and were
more engaged with their employer, all very positive for the businesses and

Advanced Technology for Smart Buildings. Norwood: Artech House; 2016.

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 2.3  Productivity and Satisfaction of Building Occupants 13

organizations. The metrics and methodology of evaluating the satisfaction

and productivity of building occupants have been developed and at the core
it is a survey of people that use the building. The feedback from those peo-
ple, whether they are office workers, shoppers or teachers is valuable input
to enhance building operations or improve the design of the next building.
Lighting in workplaces can affect our disposition, satisfaction and well-
being and is important to occupants comfort and productivity. Natural light
is the best light for work but many commercial offices don’t have enough
daylight. Lighting systems are used to complement or supplement daylight-
ing. The quality and quantity of such artificial lighting is key to comfort and
productivity. Occupants also want control of the lighting in their workspace
or desk, enough lighting to carry out their tasks, and the light to provide a
pleasing ambience.
Many times new commercial buildings install generic lighting in tenant
space prior to knowing who the tenant may be and the eventual tenant is
left with general lighting rather than lighting specific to their needs. Issues
such as lighting control, quality of the light, lighting too high or lighting at
the wrong locations occur. Also, over time building space may change or be
renovated and it’s at that point that lighting needs to be reconsidered.
In the past, offices in a commercial office building had four walls and
a door. Over time many offices became desks in open plan spaces with the
system furniture, where desks and cubicles were interlocked. The intent
was primarily to facilitate employee interaction and collaboration. In some
cases the objective was to reduce the space needed as well as cost. Many
current office environments may have a few private offices and use flexible
assignment of desks or offices via hoteling or hot-desking. Large open plan
spaces can create acoustic issues; loss of privacy , and high noise levels, all
of which cause distractions and decreased productivity. Studies show office
workers biggest complaint is privacy, specifically overheard conversations.
To address acoustic issues in office spaces owners or tenants have imple-
mented several initiatives. One strategy is simply to separate incompatible
office uses. That is, rooms meant for interaction, collaboration and a level of
Copyright © 2016. Artech House. All rights reserved.

privacy, such as conference rooms, huddle rooms, focus rooms, etc. would
be located separate from open office space. The same would be true of sup-
port rooms, such as coffee bars or copier rooms.
If partitions are used in open office spaces, they should have a low noise
reduction coefficient so the partition does not reflect speech when an oc-
cupant is seated at their desk. Another option is the use of sound absorbing
ceilings and walls. Sound rated walls should be used for training rooms,
conference rooms, and executive offices.
Another option to address acoustic issues in office space is the use of
sound masking systems. These systems matured in the 1970s with the use

Advanced Technology for Smart Buildings. Norwood: Artech House; 2016.

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 14 Advanced Technology for Smart Buildings

of pick noise which could match the frequencies of human speech and im-
proved audibility. A sound masking system uses a series of loudspeakers
installed in a predetermined grid pattern in the ceiling. There are meth-
ods to control and configure grid zones and output to optimize different
spaces. The system basically distributes an engineered background sound
throughout a work space. Independent studies have indicated that sound
masking systems improve worker productivity, reduce stress, and increase
job satisfaction
One of the most important factors affecting occupancy satisfaction is
thermal comfort. If you were to ask a facility engineer what the most com-
mon service call is from a building occupant he would tell you it’s “hot and
cold calls”. These calls are driven not only by the air temperature but also
air velocity, relative humidity, and the temperature of the occupant’s im-
mediate surroundings. There are a number of other factors that can affect
an occupant’s thermal comfort: their clothing, physical activity level, overall
wellbeing, and food and drink.
While we focus on thermal comfort and health, thermal aspects of the
building must also prevent mold and mildew as well as damage to the build-
ing’s materials. Thermal comfort in a commercial building must adhere to
ASHRAE Standard 55 Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Oc-
cupancy. This essentially defines thermal comfort in commercial buildings.
This standard provides methods to determine thermal environmental con-
ditions (temperature, humidity, air speed, radiant effects) for buildings in
which a significant proportion of the occupants (80%) will find acceptable
comfort at a certain metabolic rate and clothing level.
Short of a quantitative whole building performance methodology,
building owners will need to use comparable data, interviews, observa-
tions, surveys, tests, and demographic and financial data to evaluate other
building performance factors. Note that there may be other measures to
consider in a given building’s performance than the ones covered here and
other methodologies to develop those performance metrics. One option of
measuring performance is the use of Post Occupancy Evaluations (POE).
Copyright © 2016. Artech House. All rights reserved.

These evaluations are primarily geared towards the occupants, but also in-
clude building staff, visitors, and others regarding how the building meets
user’s needs and suggestions for improving building performance. A POE
usually involves both quantitative and qualitative aspects. The evaluation
can be done as a focus group, via an interview or a questionnaire. Other
information, such as energy consumption or lighting levels, air quality, or
the number and responses to work orders can be taken into account. While
POE obviously involves post occupancy, it can be used prior to the project
to identify project success or set a baseline.

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 2.3  Productivity and Satisfaction of Building Occupants 15

It is difficult, if not next to impossible, to quantify all the different as-

pects of a building environment on occupant productivity and satisfaction.
However, a number of studies on a conducive building environment in-
dicate modest, measurable improvements in productivity which certainly
result in significant financial gains.
Copyright © 2016. Artech House. All rights reserved.

Advanced Technology for Smart Buildings. Norwood: Artech House; 2016.

Created from metropolia-ebooks on 2022-02-13 17:02:17.
Copyright © 2016. Artech House. All rights reserved.

Advanced Technology for Smart Buildings. Norwood: Artech House; 2016.

Created from metropolia-ebooks on 2022-02-13 17:02:17.