Thermal comfort and physical activity in an office setting

Abstract

Growing awareness of the health risks associated with sedentary behaviour have raised concerns about the health and safety of office workers who spend as much as 77% of their work hours sedentary and often for prolonged periods. In this research we look at the association between building heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), and physical activity at work measured using ambient temperature. Two months of Fitbit 1-min step count and heartrate data from 15 office-based workers was used along with desk-based USB temperature loggers capturing 15-minute temperature data over the collection period. Preliminary results identify a strongly significant correlation between one-minute interval step count, temperature and heartrate data were found (P > 0.000). Further research on the relationship between physical activity and thermal activity is warranted, using data from building management systems to capture data not only temperature but other measures of thermal comfort such as humidity and air flow.