Not logical: for better performance, loosen air conditioning

Here, on SmartPlanet, we talk about energy and performance savings. So here is a similar advice from researchers at Cornell University : too much air conditioning actually reduces productivity.

If you have gone through a sizzling heat wave that has swept most of the eastern part of the country (US - approx. Lane ) in recent weeks, your skepticism is understandable. The first desire of many office workers who came to work in the morning, to cut the air conditioner to the fullest. On electricity bills let's take care next month.

But I can remember the work in many offices where people had to wear sweaters in the summer, because they were shivering with cold conditioners.

Search Google for the term “air conditioning and performance” and you will receive many links to articles and advertising materials linking the comfortable level of office air conditioning and productivity.
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However, a few years ago, one team of researchers came to the conclusion that too much air conditioning might be excessive. Alan Hedge, a professor of environmental design and analysis, and the head of the laboratory of human-related factors and ergonomics at Cornell University, led the study, which revealed that too low conditioning temperatures also lead to lower productivity. He also noted: “Frozen workers not only make more mistakes, but low temperatures can increase the hourly cost of an employee’s work by 10 percent.”

Hedge led his research at the headquarters of the Insurance Office of America in Orlando, Florida, a suitable place to measure the effect of air conditioning. His team found that when the temperature was increased from 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit (from 20 to 25 degrees Celsius - approx. ) During a month-long study, the number of input errors from the keyboard dropped by 44 percent and the speed jumped to 150 percent. He gave the following assessment: "The results of our study also suggest that raising the temperature to a comfortable level keeps the tenant about $ 2 per hour for each employee."

Each of the nine jobs in the Insurance Office of America was equipped with a personal miniature sensor for measuring temperature every 15 minutes. Researchers recorded the time spent on keyboard input and the time spent on error correction.

Hedge concluded:

“At a temperature of 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius - approx. ), Employees spent 100 percent of their time typing, 10 percent of which were errors. When the temperature dropped to 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius - approx. Lane ), the data entry speed dropped to 54 percent, of which 25 percent were errors. Temperature is really the key factor affecting performance. ”

Were there some aspects of the Hawthorne effect , in which workers who knew that they were the object of research were more productive? Or maybe Hedge would have a different result if he studied workers in the courtyard of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where people are perhaps more accustomed to cold temperatures?

Undoubtedly, if it turns out that these studies are repeatable, this can be the basis for the conclusions of various energy efficiency initiatives.

Or maybe we should take a signal from Stan Cox from the Washington Post, who recently expressed the opinion that perhaps we should completely end the air conditioners and go back to the siesta in the middle of the day? But let's better turn to this discussion somewhere in the middle of December, don't you mind?