The effects of air temperature on office workers' well-being, workload and productivity-evaluated with subjective ratings

What the study found

Temperature altered subjective workload and well-being, with physiological measures including HRV and EEG used alongside performance outcomes.

Limitations

Small sample; extreme conditions relative to many offices; short-term exposure.

Neurodesign interpretation

A thermostat changes more than thermal sensation. The stronger research question is whether the thermal state shifts arousal and workload enough to change how work feels to execute.

Possible design implications

When testing thermal design, collect physiology and workload alongside comfort votes.

Why it stays in the corpus

Retain as an early multimodal thermal-neurophysiology study.

Study design

Controlled exposure at 17, 21 and 28 °C

Population

21 adult participants

Setting

Climate chamber simulating office work

Field

Thermal environment

Mechanism

Thermal strain, workload, autonomic and EEG response

Spatial variable

Indoor temperature

Keywords

temperature, HRV, EEG, workload, office