The effect of local cooling and air quality by task/ambient conditioningsystem on productivity

近年来，工位/环境空调系统从节能的角度引起了人们的关注。在这项研究中，研究了呼吸性空气质量和局部降温对工人生产力的影响。我们使用红外光谱测量脑血流量，以评估脑力劳动负荷。研究证实，在较热的环境中，维持任务绩效的脑力负荷水平比在热中性条件下更高。分析表明，任务风扇的局部降温比单纯通过室温控制热感觉对脑力工作负荷的影响更大。脑血流无法检测到日常生活中常见的空气质量的细微差异。

The task/ambient conditioning air conditioning systems attract attention in recent years from the aspect of energy conservation. In this study, the effects of respirable air quality or local cooling on workers’ productivity were studied. We used infrared spectroscopy to measure cerebral blood flow in an effort to evaluate the mental workload. It was confirmed that the mental workload level to maintain task performance was increased in the hotter environment than in the thermally neutral condition. Theanalyses indicate that local cooling of the task fan had better impact on mental workload than simply controlling thermal sensation via room temperature. The cerebral blood flow was not able to detect the small differences of air quality that was normally experienced in daily life.