10/16/2011 | stryjko_bojko

Which temperature is best for your productivity?
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It is summer now. Outdoor temperature raises to unseen peaks and only air conditioner can help you to stay smooth. No doubt that temperature influences your productivity. But how? And what temperature is best for office productivity to setup your air conditioner? Let's find out.

In majority of cases existing standards for the temperature of the work environment allows wide temperature range from 65° F (18° C) to 88° F (31° C) depending on working conditions. But this range is quite lengthy and most people feel uncomfortable working outside relatively short 'comfort zone'.

Scientific studies confirm that indoor temperature can significantly impact on productivity and most performing 'comfort zone' lays between 72° F (22° C) and (77° F) 25° C. The graph below based on research by Helsinki University of Technology 'Effect of Temperature on Task Performance in Office Environment' shows how relative productivity changes with the temperature.

Productivity vs. temperature graph

As you can see, the productivity changes significantly and highest performance achieved in relatively short peak between 70° F (21° C) and 73° (23° C). Outside 63° F (17° C) and 82° F (28° C) temperature range the productivity decreases more than 5% and significantly impacts on workers ability to work and even can influence health.

Though most scientific researches return close results, on the other hand there are some differences. Scientific studies on the subject performed by Cornell University concludes that most convenient temperature for best office performance is at 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius). When the office temperature is outside this mark the productivity decreases (research was attended mostly to temperature decreases).

"At 77 degrees Fahrenheit, the workers were keyboarding 100 percent of the time with a 10 percent error rate, but at 68 degrees, their keying rate went down to 54 percent of the time with a 25 percent error rate."

It is important to add that most comfortable temperature for best performance can be determined only on personal level and it depends on physiological characteristics of a human. For example, plump people prefer a little lower temperature than thin people.

Thus while using air conditioner remember, that it is important not even to overheat yourself but also not overcool too. Productivity Science recommends to setup range between 71° F (22° C) and 77° F (25° C) on you air conditioner remote control and maybe it is good to try different temperatures in this range to find most appropriate for your performance.
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Room temperature

Room temperature is a general term describing common indoor temperatures.

Comfort levels

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has listings for suggested temperatures and air flow rates in different types of buildings and different environmental circumstances. For example, a single office in a building has an occupancy ratio per square meter of 0.1. In the summer the suggested temperature is between 23.5 and 25.5 degrees Celsius (74.3 F to 77.9 F), and maximum airflow velocity of 0.18 m/s. In the winter, the recommended temperature is between 21.0 and 23.0 degrees Celsius (69.8 to 73.4 F) with a maximum airflow velocity of 0.15 m/s.

For scientific calculations, room temperature is usually taken to be either 20 or 25 degrees Celsius (293 or 298 kelvins (K), 68 or 77 degrees Fahrenheit).[citation needed] For numerical convenience, 300.00 K (26.85 °C, 80.33 °F) is often used, without being specified as "room temperature".[citation needed] However, room temperature is not a uniformly defined scientific term, unlike Standard Temperature and Pressure, or STP, which has several slightly different definitions.
[edit] Ambient versus room temperature

Room temperature implies a temperature inside a temperature-controlled building. Ambient temperature simply means "the temperature of the surroundings" and will be the same as room temperature indoors. In many languages, such as Spanish, there is an expression for ambient temperature, but no distinct translation for room temperature

From Wikipedia