Not logical: for better performance, loosen conditioning

Original author: Joe McKendrick
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Here at SmartPlanet we talk about energy saving and productivity. So here is the illogical advice from Cornell University researchers : too much air conditioning actually reduces productivity.

If you went through a sizzling heat wave that has swept through most of the eastern part of the country (USA - approx. Per. ) In recent weeks, your skepticism is understandable. The first desire of many office workers who came to work in the morning is to cut the air conditioner to the full. We'll worry about electricity bills next month.

But I can remember working in many offices in which people had to wear sweaters in the summer, because they trembled with the cold of the air conditioners.

Search Google for the term “air conditioning and productivity” and you will get many links to articles and promotional materials linking the comfortable level of air conditioning in offices and productivity.

However, a few years ago, one team of researchers concluded that too much conditioning could be excessive. Alan Hedge, a professor of design and environmental analysis, as well as the head of the Cornell University Human and Ergonomics Laboratory, led a study that found that too low air conditioning also leads to poor performance. He also said: “Frozen workers not only make more mistakes, but low temperatures can increase the hourly cost of an employee by 10 percent.”

Hedge led his research at the Insurance Office of America headquarters in Orlando, Florida, a suitable location to measure conditioning effect. His team found that when the temperature was raised from 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit during the course of a month's research (from 20 to 25 degrees Celsius - approx. Per. ), The number of keyboard input errors fell by 44 percent, and the speed jumped to 150 percent. He gave the following assessment: "The results of our study also suggest that raising the temperature to a comfortable level saves the employer about $ 2 per hour for each employee."

Each of the nine jobs in the Insurance Office of America was equipped with a personal miniature temperature sensor every 15 minutes. Researchers recorded the time spent on keyboard input and the time spent on fixing errors.

Hedge concluded:
“At a temperature of 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius - approx. Per. ), Employees spent 100 percent of the time typing on the keyboard, of which 10 percent were errors. When the temperature dropped to 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius - approx. Per. ), The data input speed decreased to 54 percent, of which 25 percent were errors. Temperature is indeed a key factor affecting productivity. ”

Were there some aspects of the Hawthorne effect in which workers who knew they were the subject of the study were more productive? Or maybe Hedge would get a different result if he studied workers in the courtyard of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where people are perhaps more accustomed to cold temperatures?

Undoubtedly, if it turns out that these studies are repeatable, this may become the basis for the conclusions of various energy efficiency initiatives.

Or maybe we should receive a signal from Stan Cox from the Washington Post, who recently expressed an opinionthat perhaps we should completely end the air conditioning and go back to siesta in the middle of the day? But let's better turn to this discussion somewhere in the middle of December, don't mind?

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