Use of Air Movement as an Indicator During the Investigation of Indoor Air Quality Complaints

Air movement is a common source of occupant dissatisfaction in air-conditioned offices (it can be too low or too high) and therefore a common contributor to complaints about the indoor environment. Despite this, the subjectivity of human response, an undue emphasis on temperature as an indicator of comfort and an undue emphasis on airborne contaminants have all contributed to limited technical advice in this area. This paper reviews some of the available information (including standards) and presents an approach to the assessment of building indoor air quality issues that includes measurement of air movement at every workstation. Two sets of results demonstrating the variability of air movement between individual workstations in the same office are presented. Results such as these can provide objective evidence of the validity of some complaints by individuals at affected workstations.