The fact that my office is so cold has been bugging me as of late.
- At first, I was thinking to myself, why do my bosses feel the need to blast air conditioning into our work space as if it was a freaking freezer!? I was even tempted to consider it gender discrimination, because I had heard that office work spaces are tailored to the personal comfort level of men rather than women.
Then, I actually did some research. Generally speaking, the problem of one particular part of one’s workspace being far colder than others has to do with unbalanced air flow. When the commercial HVAC system is installed, unbalanced air flow needs to be accounted for and countered by the installer. If it is not addressed, then the coldest area will be concentrated at the air vents nearest to the air conditioner unit itself. These air vents are called supply air diffusers. These diffusers are supposed to be adjusted according to the needed level of airflow. The trick is to have the supply air diffusers opened to a certain extent as to strike a balance throughout the building. The more open they are, the more cold air they will blast. The more closed they are, the less cold air they will blast. One has to keep in mind that the more closed one particular diffuser will be, the more air will be directed away from it and to another diffuser. In short, it takes the patience and care of a professional HVAC technician to achieve balanced airflow in an office building. This care is not always taken.