scholarly journals Maximum Luminances and Luminance Ratios and their Impact on Users' Discomfort Glare Perception and Productivity in Daylit Offices:  Testing the Hypothesis: Maximum Luminance and Ratio Recommendations For Visual Comfort Should be Specific to the Luminous Conditions and by Accounting For the Impact of Adaptation, the Recommendations Will be More Accurate.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Andrew Scott Linney
Keyword(s):  
Health And Safety ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Visual Comfort ◽  
User Characteristics ◽  
Office Environment ◽  
Lighting Conditions ◽  
Subjective Assessments ◽  
Discomfort Glare ◽  
The Impact ◽  
At Will

<p>Lighting is an important environmental factor when considering health and safety, visual comfort and workplace design. But how well do we really understand the implications of lighting on these factors, especially in a workplace environment? When one attempts to digest the enormous volume of information of the past century regarding recommended lighting conditions, one begins to see that these recommendations are varied, not extensively tested and often apply to a very limited set of luminous conditions. In a world with daylighting design which increasingly challenges creative and technological boundaries, it is important that the factors and limits which contribute to visual comfort are well understood in order to test these new designs. Daylighting design also becomes important simply from a sustainability standpoint with energy efficiency becoming increasingly important in this age of diminishing natural resources. With an increase in the amount of daylight in buildings spawning from this desire to capitalize on the free and daily renewable light from the sun, difficult and often immeasurable factors such as a view of the outdoors and higher adaptation levels of space users' eyes could very realistically affect the current limits of the human visual system for visual comfort. Visual comfort, limits, which at best are ball park figures, loosely understood and rarely adhered to. This paper documents the testing of 48 test subjects, all of an age where they could feasibly be expected to work in an office environment, in a simulated contemporary office environment with a simulated daylighting window where the luminous conditions and layout were altered to assess the impact of such changes on visual comfort, productivity and different types of user characteristics. The window is designed so luminances of the window can be changed at will. By comparing subjective assessments of the lighting conditions with test performances, a greater understanding of the luminance limits (maximums and ratios) of the human eye for different contemporary lighting layouts within working-aged populations can be defined. With improved understanding of human tolerances to luminance distributions and lighting conditions which romote visual comfort and productivity, designers can begin to give glare prediction with respect to likely effects on these factors. This information would be highly valuable to office based firms who are currently building new or retrofitting premises (to the point where they would likely pay for it as an investment for future efficiency of their firms) thereby proving beneficial to demand for skilled architects, interior and lighting designers. In comparison to the relatively more complicated glare prediction indices involving various factors and calculations, luminance ratio recommendations are an easy to understand tool which with further study could become a powerful method of site and even user-specific glare prediction in the future.</p>

scholarly journals Maximum Luminances and Luminance Ratios and their Impact on Users' Discomfort Glare Perception and Productivity in Daylit Offices:  Testing the Hypothesis: Maximum Luminance and Ratio Recommendations For Visual Comfort Should be Specific to the Luminous Conditions and by Accounting For the Impact of Adaptation, the Recommendations Will be More Accurate.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Andrew Scott Linney
Keyword(s):  
Health And Safety ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Visual Comfort ◽  
User Characteristics ◽  
Office Environment ◽  
Lighting Conditions ◽  
Subjective Assessments ◽  
Discomfort Glare ◽  
The Impact ◽  
At Will

<p>Lighting is an important environmental factor when considering health and safety, visual comfort and workplace design. But how well do we really understand the implications of lighting on these factors, especially in a workplace environment? When one attempts to digest the enormous volume of information of the past century regarding recommended lighting conditions, one begins to see that these recommendations are varied, not extensively tested and often apply to a very limited set of luminous conditions. In a world with daylighting design which increasingly challenges creative and technological boundaries, it is important that the factors and limits which contribute to visual comfort are well understood in order to test these new designs. Daylighting design also becomes important simply from a sustainability standpoint with energy efficiency becoming increasingly important in this age of diminishing natural resources. With an increase in the amount of daylight in buildings spawning from this desire to capitalize on the free and daily renewable light from the sun, difficult and often immeasurable factors such as a view of the outdoors and higher adaptation levels of space users' eyes could very realistically affect the current limits of the human visual system for visual comfort. Visual comfort, limits, which at best are ball park figures, loosely understood and rarely adhered to. This paper documents the testing of 48 test subjects, all of an age where they could feasibly be expected to work in an office environment, in a simulated contemporary office environment with a simulated daylighting window where the luminous conditions and layout were altered to assess the impact of such changes on visual comfort, productivity and different types of user characteristics. The window is designed so luminances of the window can be changed at will. By comparing subjective assessments of the lighting conditions with test performances, a greater understanding of the luminance limits (maximums and ratios) of the human eye for different contemporary lighting layouts within working-aged populations can be defined. With improved understanding of human tolerances to luminance distributions and lighting conditions which romote visual comfort and productivity, designers can begin to give glare prediction with respect to likely effects on these factors. This information would be highly valuable to office based firms who are currently building new or retrofitting premises (to the point where they would likely pay for it as an investment for future efficiency of their firms) thereby proving beneficial to demand for skilled architects, interior and lighting designers. In comparison to the relatively more complicated glare prediction indices involving various factors and calculations, luminance ratio recommendations are an easy to understand tool which with further study could become a powerful method of site and even user-specific glare prediction in the future.</p>

A dynamic vertical shading optimisation to improve view, visual comfort and operational energy

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahdi Valitabar ◽  
Mohammadjavad Mahdavinejad ◽  
Henry Skates ◽  
Peiman Pilechiha
Keyword(s):  
High Performance ◽  
Parametric Design ◽  
Design Method ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Natural Light ◽  
Visual Comfort ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Operational Energy ◽  
Discomfort Glare ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to present a parametric design method to generate optimum adaptive facades regarding occupants' comfort and building energy criteria. According to the literature review, the following questions have arisen to address the research gaps: Is it possible to have the outside view throughout the whole year without discomfort glare by utilising adaptive solar facades (ASFs)? How can architects integrate both view quality and quantity into ASF design? What is the impact of dynamic vertical shading systems mounted on south facades on the outside view, occupants' visual comfort and operational energy? How can we evaluate the view quantity through multi-layer shading systems?Design/methodology/approachIn recent years, there is a surge in demand for fully glazed buildings, motivating both architects and scholars to explore novel ideas for designing adaptive solar facades. Nevertheless, the view performance of such systems has not been fully explored especially when it comes to the effect of dynamic vertical shading systems mounted on south facades. This fact clarifies the need to conduct more research in this field by taking into account the window view and natural light. Consequently, a simulation research is carried out to investigate the impact of a dynamic shading system with three vertical slats used on the south facade of a single office room located in Tehran, on both view quality and quantity, visual comfort and operational energy. The research attempts to reach a balance between the occupant's requirements and building energy criteria through a multi-objective optimisation. The distinctive feature of the proposed method is generating some optimum shading which could only cover the essential parts of the window area. It was detected from the simulation results that the usage of a dynamic vertical shading system with multi slats for south facades compared to common Venetian blinds can firstly, provide four times more view quantity. Secondly, the view quality is significantly improved through enabling occupants to enjoy the sky layer the entire year. Finally, twice more operational energy can be saved while more natural light can enter the indoor environment without glare. The final outcome of this research contributes toward designing high-performance adaptive solar facades.FindingsThis paper proposes a new metric to evaluate the view quantity through a multi-layer shading system. The proposed method makes it clear that the usage of dynamic vertical shading systems with multi-layers mounted on south facades can bring many benefits to both occupants and building energy criteria. The proposed method could (1) provide four times more view quantity; (2) improve view quality by enabling occupants to watch the sky layer throughout the whole year; (3) slash the operational energy by twice; (4) keep the daylight glare probability (DGP) value in the imperceptible range.Research limitations/implicationsThe research limitations that should be acknowledged are ignoring the impact of the adjacent building on sunlight reflection, which could cause discomfort glare issues. Another point regarding the limitations of the proposed optimisation method is the impact of vertical shading systems on users' visual interests. A field study ought to be conducted to determine which one could provide the more desirable outside view: a vertical or horizontal the view. Research on the view performance of ASFs, especially their impact on the quality of view, is sorely lacking.Originality/valueThis paper (1) analyses the performance of dynamic vertical shadings on south facades; (2) evaluates outside view through multi-layer shading systems; and (3) integrates both view quality and quantity into designing adaptive solar facades.

scholarly journals Impacts of Dynamic LED Lighting on the Well-Being and Experience of Office Occupants

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (19) ◽  
pp. 7217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rongpeng Zhang ◽  
Carolina Campanella ◽  
Sara Aristizabal ◽  
Anja Jamrozik ◽  
Jie Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Functioning ◽  
Mental Stress ◽  
Critical Factor ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Color Temperature ◽  
Visual Comfort ◽  
Lighting Conditions ◽  
Visual Impacts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Dynamic Lighting

As a critical factor in the built environment, lighting presents considerable influence on occupants. Previous research across static lighting conditions has found that both illuminance and correlated color temperature (CCT) affect occupants’ physiological and psychological functioning. However, little research has been conducted on the non-visual impacts of dynamic lighting with daily variation in illuminance and CCT levels. The purpose of this study is to better understand the impact of dynamic lighting on office occupants’ health, well-being and experience at a living lab. Fifteen participants were recruited to work in three office modules for four months. Four lighting conditions were designed and implemented in this study, including two static lighting conditions and two dynamic lighting conditions with a specific predefined control scheme. A prototype lighting system with enhanced control capabilities was configured and implemented to ensure the desired lighting environment protocol. Both objective methods and subjective surveys were used to assess the behavioral and physiological outcomes of interest, including mental stress, sleep, productivity, satisfaction, mood, visual comfort and perceived naturalness. The results showed that the daytime behavioral impacts were either positive or mixed. Specifically, a significant alertness increase was observed in the afternoon, indicating a potential solution to reduce the natural feelings of sleepiness during the workday. There was also a marginal benefit for mood. The nighttime impacts include a significant decrease in perceived sleep quality and sleep time after subjects were exposed to dynamic lighting. No significant differences were observed for mental stress, productivity, visual comfort, or perceived naturalness. The findings present additional insights into the non-visual impacts of dynamic lighting and give recommendations for further investigations.

scholarly journals Human Centric Lighting: The impact of light on sleep and attention of factory shift workers

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Kindt ◽  
E Van de Putte ◽  
P Bracke ◽  
L Vandevivere ◽  
W Ryckaert
Keyword(s):  
Visual Comfort ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Shift Workers ◽  
Lighting Condition ◽  
Lighting Conditions ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Illuminance Level ◽  
Sleep And Cognition ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Morning Shift

Abstract Introduction Increased blue-enriched morning light is often said to support circadian rhythm synchronization. Through a better sleep quality, one's cognitive and emotional functioning can also be enhanced. However, it is unclear which light characteristics (especially illuminance at eye level) are necessary to obtain a wellbeing effect in employees. This field study investigated different lighting conditions in a truck factory. Methods 71 shift workers participated in the study during their morning shift (6 am - 2 pm). Measurements of sleep (MotionWatch8), attention (D2 attention task, go no-go computer task) and visual comfort (questionnaire) were administered before and after changing the lighting conditions. A Human Centric Lighting-condition (HCL; vertical melanopic equivalent daylight illuminance (MEDI) = 250 lux, CCT=5000 K; N = 33) was compared with a control LED-condition (MEDI = 44 lux, CCT=4000K; N = 38). Results Results show that workers in the HCL-condition showed a larger improvement in sleep efficiency (p=.057) and concentration (p=.01) than the control LED-group. No differences were found in visual comfort between groups. Discussion Preliminary results are promising and show that 250 MEDI might be a sufficient cut-off to stimulate workers' sleep and cognition. The high illuminance level was not detrimental in the HCL condition for the perceived visual comfort. Key messages Blue-enriched morning light supports sleep and concentration in shift workers. High illuminance levels are not detrimental for the perceived visual comfort.

Regulatory and sustainability initiatives lead to improved polyaminopolyamide epichlorohydrin (PAE) wet-strength resins and paper products

TAPPI Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (09) ◽  
pp. 519-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Crisp ◽  
Richard Riehle
Keyword(s):  
Health And Safety ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Worker Safety ◽  
Regulatory Requirements ◽  
Wet Strength ◽  
The Past ◽  
Consumer Safety ◽  
Federal Institute ◽  
Sustainability Initiatives ◽  
The Impact

Polyaminopolyamide-epichlorohydrin (PAE) resins are the predominant commercial products used to manufacture wet-strengthened paper products for grades requiring wet-strength permanence. Since their development in the late 1950s, the first generation (G1) resins have proven to be one of the most cost-effective technologies available to provide wet strength to paper. Throughout the past three decades, regulatory directives and sustainability initiatives from various organizations have driven the development of cleaner and safer PAE resins and paper products. Early efforts in this area focused on improving worker safety and reducing the impact of PAE resins on the environment. These efforts led to the development of resins containing significantly reduced levels of 1,3-dichloro-2-propanol (1,3-DCP) and 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD), potentially carcinogenic byproducts formed during the manufacturing process of PAE resins. As the levels of these byproducts decreased, the environmental, health, and safety (EH&S) profile of PAE resins and paper products improved. Recent initiatives from major retailers are focusing on product ingredient transparency and quality, thus encouraging the development of safer product formulations while maintaining performance. PAE resin research over the past 20 years has been directed toward regulatory requirements to improve consumer safety and minimize exposure to potentially carcinogenic materials found in various paper products. One of the best known regulatory requirements is the recommendations of the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), which defines the levels of 1,3-DCP and 3-MCPD that can be extracted by water from various food contact grades of paper. These criteria led to the development of third generation (G3) products that contain very low levels of 1,3-DCP (typically <10 parts per million in the as-received/delivered resin). This paper outlines the PAE resin chemical contributors to adsorbable organic halogens and 3-MCPD in paper and provides recommendations for the use of each PAE resin product generation (G1, G1.5, G2, G2.5, and G3).

Women Garment Workers Face Huge Inequities in Global Supply Chain Factories Made Worse by COVID-19

2021 ◽  
pp. 104829112110116
Author(s):  
Garrett D. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Women Workers ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Professional Associations ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Garment Workers ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
Structural Inequities ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
The Impact

Women make up the large majority of workers in global supply chains, especially factories in the apparel supply chain. These workers face significant inequalities in wages, workplace hazards, and a special burden of gender-based violence and harassment. These “normal” conditions have been compounded by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has exacerbated long-standing structural inequities. Decades of well-financed “corporate social responsibility” programs have failed because they do not address the underlying causes of illegal and abusive working conditions. New initiatives in the past half-decade offer promise in putting the needs and rights of workers front and center. Occupational health and safety professionals can assist in the global effort to improve working and social conditions, and respect for the rights and dignity of women workers, through advocacy and action on the job, in their professional associations, and in society at large.

scholarly journals Assessing the Energy Resilience of Office Buildings: Development and Testing of a Simplified Metric for Real Estate Stakeholders

Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Paul Mathew ◽  
Lino Sanchez ◽  
Sang Hoon Lee ◽  
Travis Walter
Keyword(s):  
Regression Models ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Office Buildings ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Power Outage ◽  
Continuity Of Operations ◽  
Quasi Monte Carlo ◽  
Building Characteristics ◽  
The Impact

Increasing concern over higher frequency extreme weather events is driving a push towards a more resilient built environment. In recent years there has been growing interest in understanding how to evaluate, measure, and improve building energy resilience, i.e., the ability of a building to provide energy-related services in the event of a local or regional power outage. In addition to human health and safety, many stakeholders are keenly interested in the ability of a building to allow continuity of operations and minimize business disruption. Office buildings are subject to significant economic losses when building operations are disrupted due to a power outage. We propose “occupant hours lost” (OHL) as a means to measure the business productivity lost as the result of a power outage in office buildings. OHL is determined based on indoor conditions in each space for each hour during a power outage, and then aggregated spatially and temporally to determine the whole building OHL. We used quasi-Monte Carlo parametric energy simulations to demonstrate how the OHL metric varies due to different building characteristics across different climate zones and seasons. The simulation dataset was then used to develop simple regression models for assessing the impact of ten key building characteristics on OHL. The most impactful were window-to-wall ratio and window characteristics. The regression models show promise as a simple means to assess and screen for resilience using basic building characteristics, especially for non-critical facilities where it may not be viable to conduct detailed engineering analysis.

The Impact of Organisational, Social Environmental and Job Content Stressors on the Work Related Strains of Probation Officers

2001 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare O'donnell ◽  
Christine Stephens
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Workplace Stress ◽  
Probation Officers ◽  
Curvilinear Relationship ◽  
Work Stressors ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Job Content ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

In recent years workplace stress has been seen as an important occupational health and safety problem and probation officers in New Zealand have been identified as suffering from increasing perceptions of stress. Accordingly, the present study was undertaken with a sample of 50 New Zealand Probation Officers in three offices to examine the relationship of individual, organisational and work stressors with work related strains. It was predicted that work stressors would be positively related to strains and that individual differences (e.g., age or gender) would have a moderating effect on the relationship between stressors and strains. The results showed that stressors caused by organisational problems, such as role boundary and overload, were related to strains, more strongly than job content problems, such as difficult clients. Secondly, age may have a curvilinear relationship to strains. Thirdly, the office, or place of work, moderates the stressor strain relationship.

Is there a difference in how people from different socio-environmental contexts perceive discomfort due to glare from daylight?

2021 ◽  
pp. 147715352098353
Author(s):  
C Pierson ◽  
B Piderit ◽  
T Iwata ◽  
M Bodart ◽  
J Wienold
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Context ◽  
Office Buildings ◽  
Visual Discomfort ◽  
Physical Measurements ◽  
Subjective Assessments ◽  
Discomfort Glare

Exposure to daylight has much to offer and should be optimised to maximise its potential. In order to harvest its benefits, any visual discomfort from daylight should be anticipated and minimised. Hence, there is the need to predict discomfort from daylight glare. While more than 20 models for predicting discomfort from daylight glare have been developed, none accurately predict it. The inclusion of additional factors in the models may improve the predictions. One such factor is the socio-environmental context of the observer. This study compares the evaluations of discomfort glare from daylight for office buildings in four socio-environmental contexts: Chile, Belgium, Japan and Switzerland. The evaluations of discomfort glare, each consisting of subjective assessments and physical measurements of a view condition, were collected at the office desks of 401 participants, although only 211 responses were used in the analyses due to exclusion rules. The results do not suggest evidence of an influence of socio-environmental context on discomfort from daylight glare. In other words, the participants in this study perceived discomfort glare similarly, regardless of their socio-environmental context.

The impact of Jalan Sesama on the educational and healthy development of Indonesian preschool children: An experimental study

2010 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dina L.G. Borzekowski ◽  
Holly K. Henry
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Developmental Needs ◽  
Healthy Development ◽  
Media Intervention ◽  
Safety Knowledge ◽  
The Impact

Jalan Sesama was developed to address the developmental needs of Indonesian children ages 3 to 6 years. Using a randomized experimental research study design, this study examined the effect of a 14-week intervention on 160 children in the Pandeglang District in Indonesia’s Banten Province. Results offer solid evidence that early cognitive skills, literacy, mathematics, health and safety knowledge, social development, environmental awareness, and cultural awareness significantly improved from baseline to post-intervention. Those with the greatest exposure to Jalan Sesama performed the best, even after controlling for baseline scores, gender, age, and parents’ education. This paper describes how an educational media intervention can have great benefits, even in locales where the children face difficult hardships and lack basic resources.

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