Every day we see more and more buildings seeking to become healthy spaces for their occupants. Whether through healthy building certifications or solutions that help increase occupant comfort and well-being, the goal is to offer a high degree of health, comfort, and well-being.
However, all these three aspects: comfort, wellness, and health cannot always be measured by numbers alone. In our opinion, all these factors must be measured based on human perception in order to be effective. And for that, you need to measure things like radiant temperature, thermal comfort, and aerosols. Why?
Let's look at an example to understand it better.
Imagine it is a hot summer day and you are sitting by the window. You probably have a very nice view, but you might also be very hot. Usually, if the sun is shining directly through the window, it feels much hotter. However, someone sitting on the completely opposite side of the room, without a direct impact of the sun, might not feel as hot. So, even though the room where you are sitting might have a nice temperature of 21 degrees, the thermal comfort between you and the person sitting in the opposite corner is very different. For you, the room might feel like 27 degrees, while for the other person it might feel like 20.
So how do we measure this?
Most standard solutions only measure the overall room temperature but fail to measure the radiant temperature and thermal comfort. While measuring and adjusting the room temperature is already a good start to providing comfortable spaces, it might not be enough. As you've seen from our example, heating or cooling the room to the recommended 21 degrees does not automatically mean that the environment is comfortable for the occupants.
The correct way to know how comfortable the temperature of an environment is for the occupants of the building is to measure it the same way you, us, and anyone else in the room would perceive it: as a human being.
That's why our Clairify sensors focus on offering not only temperature measurement but also radiant temperature measurement, making them the only sensors capable of sensing the environment like a human being.
In combination with further parameters, such as relative humidity and occupants surveys, we translate this into thermal comfort, helping you create truly healthy and people-first spaces.
Continue reading about healthy buildings and the effects on the occupants' health in our latest blog: How do healthy buildings benefit your health?