Potential benefits of reduced summer time room temperatures in an office building

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential economical benefits of reducedsummer time temperatures in an office building. We selected for the study, a typical officebuilding in downtown Helsinki. We measured the room temperatures during a summerrepresentatively in the office rooms. In many rooms the maximum temperatures were wellabove 30C in summer 2002. We used these measured data and calculated the potentialsavings due to improved thermal environment. A method for calculating the potential savingswas introduced in paper by Seppnen et al. (2003). This study proposed a 2.0% decrement ofproductivity per C when the room temperature is above 25C. We carried out the analysisusing different reduced maximum temperatures. We report the potential savings due to abetter thermal environment depending on the maximum temperature, and evaluate the costeffectiveness of night-time ventilative cooling to reduce high summer time temperatures.