Indoor Environmental Quality Guidelines

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I.11 Personal Control of IEQ Conditions and Impacts

Intent
Provide for local occupant control of interior conditions to better support work performance. Personal control will enable immediate improvement of intermittent discomfort and will help indicate personal availability or current work status. It will also allow workers to increase personal comfort in changing organizational contexts. However, occupants shall not be put in recurrent uncomfortable conditions, so that continuous adaptation is necessary to maintain comfort.

Recommended Performance Criteria

  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.

Compliance Tools and Resources

  • BIFMA (Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association) (2002 version, updated version may become available ) Ergonomics Guideline for VDT Furniture Used in Office Workspaces. BIFMA G1, Grand Rapids, MI.

Related MSBG Documents

Supplemental Resources

  • Bechtel, Robert B. & Churchman, Azra, (Eds.) (2002) Handbook of Environmental Psychology. John Wiley & Sons, NY.
  • Boff, K. & Lincoln, J. (Eds.) (1988) Engineering Data Compendium: Human Perception and Performance. Harry G. Armstrong Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio.
  • Human Factors Society (1988) American national standard for human factors engineering of visual display terminal workstations. (ANSI/HFS 100-1988.) Santa Monica, CA. Human Factors and Ergnomics Society.
  • NASA (1995) Man-System Integration Standards. Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX. msis.jsc.nasa.gov
  • Salvendy, Gavriel (Ed.) (1987) Handbook of Human Factors. John Wiley & Sons, NY.
  • Watson, Donald. Crosbie, Michael. Crosbie, Michael J. & Callender, Michael H. (1997.) Time-Saver Standards for Architectural Design Data. McGraw-Hill, NY.
  • Woodson, W. E, Tillman, P. & Tillman, B. (1992) Human Factors Design Handbook, 2nd Edition. McGraw-Hill, NY.

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