WarsThermostat setting can effect productivity

By Janet Rorholm

You’re hot. Your co-worker is cold. For facilities managers, it seems as if there is no pleasing everyone.

A 2009 study by the International Facility Management Association shows the top office complaint among employees is temperature settings over high noise levels, limited space or unpleasant odors. It’s either too cold (94 percent) or too hot (91 percent). Indoor air quality complaints are a distant third (25 percent), followed by too drafty (21 percent) and too noisy (16 percent).

Preferences aside, the survey also showed that many facility managers are adjusting the thermostat to higher settings in the summer and lower settings in the winter in an effort to cut energy consumption and costs.

Since a one size fits all approach rarely works, facility managers said the most common way of addressing complaints is either through the use of personal fans (66 percent) or by a change in clothing (64 percent). Popular with workers — though not always with building management — is the use of personal heaters, which 60 percent of facility professionals reported seeing used in the workplace. Many facility managers reported personal heaters are not allowed in their buildings because they present a fire hazard.

If employees think there complaints go ignored, however, they could be right. The survey showed that facility mangers sometimes say they will make an adjustment, but don’t. “This actually seems to work,” said one person.

The temperature wars have been especially difficult in downtown Cedar Rapids as area businesses lost steam heat used to regulate heating and cooling functions after the June 2008 floods knocked out Alliant Energy’s steam generating station. Businesses have scrambled to put in their own systems. Employees have had to adjust to fluctuating temperatures.

Ken White, senior manager of facilities at Gazette Communications, said when it comes to temperatures, the Occupational Safety Health Administration recommends temperature control in the range of 68 to 76 degrees year-round as well as a humidity control in the range of 20 to 60 percent. MidAmerican Energy recommends a baseline of 78 degrees in summer for cooling and 68 degrees in winter for heating.

But does temperature settings come down to just a matter of personal preference? Yes and no. Studies suggest temperatures and indoor air quality can have a direct effect on worker’s productivity levels and it seems warm workers work better, according to several Cornell University studies.

Chilly workers not only make more errors but cooler temperatures could increase a worker’s hourly labor cost by 10 percent, estimated Alan Hedge, professor in the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis at Cornell University.

Hedge found that when the office temperature in a monthlong study increased from 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit, typing errors fell by 44 percent and typing output jumped 150 percent.

“The results of our study also suggest raising the temperature to a more comfortable thermal zone saves employers about $2 per worker, per hour,” Hedge said. “Temperature is certainly a key variable that can impact performance.”