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Air movement preferences observed in office buildings

International Journal of Biometeorology volume 51, pages 349–360 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Office workers’ preferences for air movement have been extracted from a database of indoor environmental quality surveys performed in over 200 buildings. Dissatisfaction with the amount of air motion is very common, with too little air movement cited far more commonly than too much air movement. Workers were also surveyed in a detailed two-season study of a single naturally ventilated building. About one-half the building’s population wanted more air movement and only 4% wanted less. This same ratio applied when the air movement in workspaces was higher than 0.2 m/s, the de facto draft limit in the current ASHRAE and ISO thermal environment standards. Preference for “less air motion” exceeded that for “more” only at thermal sensations of −2 (cool) or colder. These results raise questions about the consequences of the ASHRAE and ISO standards’ restrictions on air movement, especially for neutral and warm conditions.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the support of: ASHRAE (Research Project RP-1161), the National Science Foundation ITR grant No. 0088648, and the Center for the Built Environment (CBE) of UC Berkeley.

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Affiliations

  1. Center for the Built Environment, UC Berkeley, 390 Wurster Hall #1839, Berkeley, CA, 94720-1839, USA

    Hui Zhang, Edward Arens, Sahar Abbaszadeh Fard, Charlie Huizenga, Gail Brager & Leah Zagreus

  2. Taylor Engineering, 1080 Marina Village Pkwy, Alameda, CA, 94501, USA

    Gwelen Paliaga

Authors
  1. Hui Zhang
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  2. Edward Arens
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  3. Sahar Abbaszadeh Fard
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  4. Charlie Huizenga
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  5. Gwelen Paliaga
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  6. Gail Brager
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  7. Leah Zagreus
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Correspondence to Hui Zhang.

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Zhang, H., Arens, E., Fard, S.A. et al. Air movement preferences observed in office buildings. Int J Biometeorol 51, 349–360 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-006-0079-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-006-0079-y

Keywords

  • Office thermal comfort
  • Air movement preference
  • Draft
  • Natural ventilation
  • Air motion