The irony of improved building fabric performance

Alison contributes the following (I am always too hot in the new office):

As Yvonne recently mentioned, we have just moved offices. The move has been interesting and has involved all kinds of changes in office behavior, commuting principles and how we interact we each other.

However, most obvious to me (as someone who is always a bit cold) is the change in temperature. I now no longer have to spend 10 months of the year in my ECUS fleece as our new office is well insulated and generally not drafty (unlike our very leaky and old-fashioned Victorian office building we moved from). This is a GOOD thing in general for people at ECUS like me who are always a bit cold! Others who are more warm-blooded are not necessarily so pleased.

However, today, for the first time in my ECUS career, I am too hot. The windows are open, but it is a wind-less day and the air conditioning unit is not working. I can only assume that it has something to do with good building insulation, 14 people in the office and lots of electrical equipment giving out heat as it is not sunny or particularly hot outside.

I am therefore left pondering the ironies of improved building fabric – fantastic in principle, but potentially an issue if we don’t have the right heating, cooling and ventilation facilities in place. And how will climate change affect this? The fact the air-con is not working is good for the environment, but not good for employee satisfaction and contentment…yet another sustainability dilemma!