The evaluation of productivity in COOL BIZ office by field measurement of thermal environment and questionnaire survey

In this research, a field measurement was conducted to investigate the thermal environment of an office conducting COOL BIZ. A questionnaire survey on the workers was also conducted during the field measurement to evaluate the effect of the thermal environment of COOL BIZ on productivity. From the measurement, The air temperature could reach over 30°C at the time when the air-conditioning system in the mornings. In July and August, it usually took more than 90 minutes for the indoor air temperature to drop to 28°C, which is the cooling preset temperature of the office. To raise the preset temperature in existing buildings, systematic and operational adjustments of the HVAC systems may be necessary for proper thermal environmental control. From the questionnaire, over 70% of the workers were thermally dissatisfied in July and August. The correlations were obtained that when the workers are thermally satisfied, the self-estimated performance is higher and the level of fatigue is lower.