How to Win the Thermostat Wars

The relationship between climate control and employee comfort and productivity

by Erica Eaton — Originally published in the September/October 2015 issue of FMJ—The greatest costs that businesses incur are people costs — salary and benefits for their employees. In fact, while typical annual energy costs average about US$3 per square foot, real estate costs are on the order of US$30 per square foot and people costs are US$300 per square foot. As such, companies invest millions of dollars on amenities directed at employee satisfaction, retention and productivity. However, one investment area that is often untapped, despite being proven to drive increased employee value, is thermal comfort.

Occupant comfort is a cornerstone of facility management, but also one that is notoriously hard to measure. And, as we move toward more modern, dynamic workspaces, it will become even harder to manage different preferences and schedules of people in work environments.

Although many buildings are now equipped with HVAC zones to create distinct areas of temperature, some of which even have the ability for occupants to moderate temperature +/-2 degrees from an established acceptable temperature range (deadband), according to a survey by Software Advice, up to 74 percent of occupants are still uncomfortable with their office temperature. This is because while these technologies can better accommodate varied occupant preferences in thermal comfort, they generally do not effectively mitigate occupant complaints and can cause disagreement among occupants (commonly known as thermostat wars).

Providing occupants with information, such as HVAC zones, can help mitigate issues regarding confl icting temperature preferences.

Providing occupants with information, such as HVAC zones, can help mitigate issues regarding confl icting temperature preferences.

Technologies allowing personalized temperature control will become more mainstream as the benefits of occupant comfort become a greater influence in corporate investment decisions. However, in order to scale up, these solutions must be easy and cost effective to deploy and offer differentiated value to both occupants and building operators.

Advancements in software and the proliferation of mobile devices and human-computer interaction can deliver on these requirements by turning the subjective nature of comfort into actionable data. By leveraging Web and mobile apps to solicit feedback directly from occupants on their comfort and utilizing that data to communicate directly with existing building systems, facilities can be optimized for both comfort and energy. Requiring little to no additional hardware, these technologies can be readily deployed across buildings both new and old to effectively address the high-value issue of occupant comfort.

The following are some of the critical capabilities to consider when assessing solutions for improving occupant/tenant comfort in the office.

Design for user experience

Historically, not much information has been shared with occupants regarding their space, and even less in regard to factors impacting their thermal comfort. Typically, at most, occupants can find a wall-mounted thermostat that allows narrow adjustments to a set range of prescribed temperatures.

Instead, an occupant-facing application should provide useful information to users about their facility, its capabilities and how temperature is regulated throughout spaces. For instance, depicting a building’s HVAC zones allows occupants to understand with whom they share temperature and how their preferences vary. Th is transparency is the first step toward ending thermostat wars and allowing people to peacefully share temperature. In fact, for buildings in which occupants have real-time access to how their personal preferences compare to the preferences of those around them, it has been shown that there is 95 percent agreement between occupants on temperature within zones.*

Additional information, such as potential limitations of building systems (whether they are short-or long-term), can also be shared with occupants. Sometimes simply sharing that a piece of equipment is out of order or that a zone is already at maximum cooling can help occupants understand what may be impacting their thermal comfort. This can potentially preempt the creation of unnecessary work orders.

Immediate response

With any Web or mobile application, engagement is key to driving sustained value. If no one uses the app, then how can the FM team collect data and take action? User trust is paramount.

Consumer-facing apps always offer a very tangible benefit to the user, and apps for workplace temperature control are no exception. It’s not enough for requests to be catalogued and put into a list for later action by the facility manager, or even for a work order to be automatically generated. When using systems like these, it’s important to understand that occupants have very little incentive to engage. Therefore, the return on your investment will be low.

In order to build trust and engagement, the software solution must integrate and operate with existing building systems. Th e commands from the occupant interface must seamlessly pass through to the building automation system to elicit the desired change in temperature at the location selected by occupants. In some cases, this function has resulted in 83 percent of eligible occupants reporting increases in satisfaction with workplace comfort, as well as a 90 percent drop in hot and cold calls fielded by facility personnel.*

Intelligent use of data

While the immediate response of a software application is incredibly important, aggregating the usage data to better manage the facility is equally critical. The more building operators know about the preferences of occupants, the more they can tune ongoing operations. For example, if occupants contacted the FM team several days in a row indicating that a space was too warm, the facility manager would likely make adjustments to the setpoints or schedule to reflect the requests.

When weighing thermal comfort software solutions, favor should be given to those that follow the same logic across all occupants and zones, and do so automatically. It should only take one or two requests for the software to learn and implement the preferred temperature setpoints at each hour of the day within each zone of the building.

While occupants can benefit from the personalized temperatures this data allows, facility and sustainability managers leverage this data to deliver significant energy savings. Through connection with the building automation system, the software should modify setpoints based on occupant preference first and energy second. This means that when occupants are not present in parts of the building or are not indicating a specific temperature preference, the HVAC zone should be operating at much wider setpoints to minimize the amount of required conditioning and to maximize energy savings. As soon as an occupant makes a request, the software should narrow the setpoints again to meet the preferred temperature. When correctly implemented, this practice can save 15-25 percent of HVAC energy.†

Continuous support

Buildings are living, breathing objects, so undoubtedly there will be circumstances that fall outside of standard operations. In these situations it’s paramount that both facility managers and occupants have a reliable team to fall back to.

By aggregating data submitted by occupants, a software solution should modify the ongoing temperature setpoints (depicted by light grey band) to satisfy occupant preference fi rst, and energy second.

By aggregating data submitted by occupants, a software solution should modify the ongoing temperature setpoints (depicted by light grey band) to satisfy occupant preference fi rst, and energy second.

Any software solution that gets implemented should have a readily available customer service center that can help troubleshoot any and all issues that arise. This is especially important when occupants, who despite having more information at their fingertips, likely don’t have in-depth knowledge of building systems and the potential operational issues at hand.

In addition to troubleshooting issues, the customer support team can provide valuable information to facilities teams that they otherwise might not have known. For instance, a customer service team might notice a high number of occupant requests within a specific zone, and upon analyzing building data, notify the facility manager of a stuck damper or other operational issue.

Investments in increasing employee satisfaction with workplace thermal comfort have the ability to drive a significant return by increasing employee productivity, retention and engagement. Th e deployment of advanced software and mobile app solutions that solicit occupant feedback on comfort and utilize this data in building management practices can mitigate traditionally complex issues regarding personalized comfort. As these technologies continue to emerge and gain traction, it should be considered best practice to provide an elegantly designed user experience, an immediate response to occupants, intelligent use of data and continuous support.

REFERENCE

† Software Advice. “How to Improve Employee Morale and Productivity Through Smart Climate Control.” July 2015. www.softwareadvice.com/construction/industryview/climate-control/?utm_medium=email_amp&utm_source=indv_email&utm_campaign=rsrch&utm_content=climate_control_const. *Based on data collected from buildings where Comfy is installed.

Erica EatonErica Eaton is director of business development at Building Robotics (BR) whose flagship product, Comfy, is the world’s first intelligent software for personalized temperature in the workplace. Helping drive and support client relationships and channel partnerships, she is focused on the value BR can deliver across the buildings industry. She can be reached at erica@buildingrobotics.com.

FMJ, the official magazine of the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), is written by and for workplace professionals and is published six times a year. FMJ is the only magazine that draws on the collective knowledge of IFMA’s global network of thought leaders to provide insights on current and upcoming FM trends. For more information on FMJ, visit www.ifma.org/publications/fmj-magazine.

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IFMA, founded in 1980, is the world’s largest and most widely recognized association for facility management professionals, supporting 24,000 members in more than 100 countries. IFMA advances collective knowledge, value and growth for Facility Management professionals. IFMA certifies professionals in facility management, conducts research, provides educational programs, content and resources, and produces World Workplace, the largest series of facility management conferences and expositions. To join and follow IFMA’s social media outlets online, visit the association’s LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter pages. For more information, visit www.ifma.org.