Case study of a sick building

Demonstrates that complaints by office staff about their physical environment are not necessarily caused by physical deficiencies. Trying to reduce the level of complaints by adjusting heating ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems can therefore be an unrewarding task. Greater attention needs to be placed on - communications between management, those responsible for running HVAC systems and staff. Staff need the feeling that they can influence, if not control, their environment. Staff should also have more realistic expectations about their thermal comfort. Stuffiness in this case was widespread but was not in general a source of discomfort, indeed in some cases it was positively appreciated. The need for minimum air velocities is suggested (as well as maximum velocities to avoid draughts) in the design of HVAC systems.