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Guideline I.10: Personal Control of IEQ Conditions and Impacts

Intent

To promote local occupant control of interior conditions to better support work performance. Personal control enables immediate improvement of intermittent discomfort and helps indicate personal availability or current work status. It also allows workers to increase personal comfort in changing organizational contexts.

Recommended Performance Criteria

Guidelines apply to all projects designated New Buildings and for Major Renovations.

  1. Provide adjustable task lighting to include “on,” “off,” and intermediate levels.
  2. Provide means of alleviating direct solar gain at all continuously occupied and assigned positions.
  3. Provide means of mitigating intermittent noise, drafts or low air circulation at all continuously occupied and assigned positions.
  4. Provide means of alleviating building control system malfunctions at all continuously occupied and assigned positions.
  5. Provide access to operable windows at all continuously occupied and assigned positions.
  6. Neck extension for continuously viewing monitors at workstation shall not be greater than 0 degrees vertical. Head rotation for continuous viewing shall not be greater than 10 degrees horizontal.
  7. At keyboard rest, there shall be no continuous deviation from an approximate 0 degree angle in elevation from elbows at sides at rest through wrists to fingertips on keyboard.

Higher performance is achievable with the following personal control criteria:

  1. Increase flexibility of workspace through adoption of standards for ergonomically adjustable and movable furniture elements (BIFMA Office Furniture Standard, European CEN Workplace Standard, NASA Man-System Integration Standards).
  2. Use tools to perform Spatial Syntax and other (e.g., Isovist) analyses that can be used to improve flexibility and habitability of workspace.

Implementation in the Design Process:

In predesign and early design, include performance criteria in programming documents. Perform an ecological matrix analysis to demonstrate the planned means of occupant control over environmental quality variables under their routine and foreseeable extreme variations .Take care to ensure that occupants are not be put in recurrent uncomfortable conditions requiring continual adaptation is necessary to maintain comfort.

Consider personal control criteria impact on the schematic design. Check that there are no obvious limits on personal control strategies in the schematic design and that personal control strategies are incorporated in the general design of building.

In the design documentation and documentation of compliance for this phase, call out the personal control strategies enabled by and included in the design. Include testing of occupant control options over indoor environmental qualities in the Commissioning Plan.

In the construction documents and construction administration and buyout of the project, verify achievement of performance criteria by exercising the range of occupant control strategies available onsite per the Commissioning Plan (see P.4 Design and Construction Commissioning for Commissioning Plan.)

During occupancy, log complaints or shortcomings noticed in lack of personal control over indoor environment (see P.5 Operations Commissioning for record keeping procedures.)

Final Design:

  • I.10A: Verification that the design includes adjustable task lighting.
  • I.10B: Verification that the design includes means of alleviating direct solar gain.
  • I.10C: Verification that the design includes means of mitigating intermittent noise.
  • I.10D: Verification that the design includes means of alleviating building control system malfunctions.
  • I.10E: Verification that the design includes access to operable windows at prescribed locations.
  • I.10F: Verification that the design includes work stations within continuously viewed monitors within parameters.
  • I.10G: Verification that the design includes no deviation at keyboard rest per guideline requirements.
  • I.10H: Verification that the design includes adoption of ergonomically adjustable and movable furniture elements.
  • I.10I: Verification that the design includes specification of tools that perform Spatial Syntax and other analysis.

Tillman, Barry. 2016. Human Factors and Ergonomics Design Handbook, Third Edition, Barry Tillman. McGraw-Hill, NY.

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