Health & wellbeing are hot topics across the board these days. Offices, homes, schools and other public buildings are taking into account how the occupants’ interact with the building and are designing buildings to be more user-friendly.
Thermal comfort, glare, air quality and access to daylight are key areas that need to be considered when looking at overall health & wellbeing in a building.
HSE use the following guide for heat:
‘The most commonly used indicator of thermal comfort is air temperature – it is easy to use and most people can relate to it. However, air temperature alone is not a valid or accurate indicator of thermal comfort or thermal stress. It should always be considered in relation to other environmental and personal factors.’
Glare is defined as:
“The condition of vision in which there is discomfort or a reduction in the ability to see significant objects, or both, due to an unsuitable distribution or range of luminance.”
Dictionary of Architectural and Building Technology, 2004
When selecting the right glare control product, it is important to consider the light visible transmittance (Tvis) of the blind system. Watch the video to find out more!
Air quality
What leads to poor air quality? Air quality is influenced by many different factors but a few that are common in offices:
Small rooms, non-working or unused kitchen extractors and MVHR fans, lack of purpose provided ventilation (PPV) strategy when applying energy efficiency interventions, ventilating by opening windows in high pollution areas and overcrowding/occupancy patterns.
– Adapted from the UCL Institute for Environment Design & Engineering
‘The preference for daylight as opposed to artificial lighting is proven in buildings (Seguro and Palmer, 2016, Aries et al., 2013, Boyce, 2014). Annual climate data is used within daylight modelling to assess the daylight availability over a year to better inform designers of the potential energy costs required to suitably light the interior of their buildings. This approach helps designers reduce energy consumption although they do not capture the human response of daylight upon occupants which can cause either significant health and well-being benefits or detrimental discomfort (Boyce, 2014).’
Research by Zoe De Grussa, Ph.D. London South Bank University
Want to know more?
The impact of healthy homes
https://shadeit.wpengine.com/2017/10/impact-healthy-homes/
World Green Building Week 2018
http://www.worldgbc.org/calendar/world-green-building-week-2018
World Green Building Council:
www.worldgbc.org/
HSE Checklist:
https://t.co/QjrTYW6Pl1
Full heating and Learning study:
https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/joshuagoodman/files/w24639.pdf
ShadeIT overheating in homes resource:
https://shadeit.wpengine.com/residential/keeping-cooler/
https://shadeit.wpengine.com/resource/effective-control-light-glare/
