Research on office temperature rise

The British Council for Offices is leading research into changing its specification for temperatures within offices to save on energy costs.

The body is working with RIBA and Corenet, a forum for office users, on the work. This will propose that office temperatures should be relaxed from the current 22 deg C mark to 24 deg C. This was first proposed by the then RIBA president Jack Pringle at the BCO conference in 2006. And Corenet has also advocated the mov,e claiming that increasing the temperature by 2 degrees would save 30,000 tonnes of carbon a year.

BCO research and policy office Jenny Macdonnell said that the body had already commissioned Arup to carry out work on assessing the possible energy savings from such a move. She added that BCO was looking for live case studies to test out how building occupants would respond to such a change. “We are still at the drawing board stage,” she said. Macdonell added that building owners would potentially have to relax dress rules during the summer to make it comfortable for office workers.