The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the trend of ‘working from home’ (WFH). It’s becoming more common for various reasons, such as reducing office rent costs, saving time on commuting, more flexible scheduling, work-life balance, and of course minimising infectious disease transmission. Despite the growing trend – and its expected contintuation – there has been no research into workplace health and comfort under the WFH scenario. Indeed, current knowledge of the so-called indoor ‘comfort zone’ has evolved in the context of commercial office buildings.
Where previously all workplace operating costs were carried by the employer, there is now a trade-o between comfort and energy use in WFH circumstances since workers are paying the utility bills. The project focus is on collecting a unique array of data on occupants’ comfort and productivity in relation to indoor environmental quality, as well as the question of how comfort and energy use are balanced in WFH. It will inform Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning standards and Australia’s housing energy rating schemes. Ultimately, it’s about being more relevant and applicable to our ‘new normal’ in order to improve the quality of working environments.
The central theme is to investigate and quantify the effect of indoor climate on occupant comfort, productivity and residential energy use in WFH settings. Meanwhile, the objectives are multiple – for example, developing a protocol to evaluate home workplaces by simplifying current tools and adapting them for measurement under remote working environments.
Similarly, quantifying the effects of adaptive behaviours on thermal comfort in WFH settings enables us to identify strategies for maintaining comfort while reducing energy and a unique set of indoor data allows for critical evaluation of current standards. It’s all directed towards evidence-based recommendations for improving Australia’s residential energy rating scheme, understood through the lens of householder energy-consuming behaviours.
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