Subjective assessment of productivity in various thermal environments of the educational building.

The indoor environment can influence not only people's well-being but also their productivity. The paper presents a questionnaire study on a large number of volunteers, who assessed their productivity under various environmental conditions (air temperature, relative humidity, CO2 concentration). The physical parameters of indoor air were measured in each room with the microclimate meter (Testo 400). The data obtained during these measurements was compared with the subjective assessments of the respondents. The tests were performed in the educational intelligent building of Kielce University of Technology (Poland). Based on it, the conclusions were drawn on the influence of indoor environment on productivity. The results indicate that the students' productivity was weak in almost 30% of the responses, which is quite intriguing considering the high level of building sophistication. The highest self-reported productivity values were obtained for the air temperature range of 21 – 23 °C. A similar finding of the optimal level of thermal sensations in the range of about +/-0.4 has been found for highest productivity rating. Additionally, a relation between productivity and the subjective well-being rating was observed. The experimental material collected from a large group of volunteers can be used by building managers to set such indoor conditions that maximize productivity and working performance. Such tests are rare in intelligent buildings, which makes the data presented in the paper valuable and important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]