Individual control of air velocity for increasing productivity

Subjective experiments were conducted in a climatic chamber to evaluate the effect ofindividual control of air velocity on productivity. For the condition of constant air velocity(CAV) subjects were not allowed to control air velocity and for the condition of preferred airvelocity (PAV) they were allowed to control it. The chamber was conditioned at airtemperatures of 31C, mean radiant temperature of 31C, and relative humidity of 50%. Severalcomputer tasks were given to the subjects to evaluate task performance. There was nosignificant difference in task performance between PAV and CAV subjects. According to theevaluation of subjective symptoms of fatigue, the subjects complained of mental fatigue moreat CAV than at PAV. It was found that providing individual control of air velocity was able toreduce subjective feelings of mental fatigue. Evaluation of fatigue is useful to evaluateproductivity.