Well summer’s visited with a vengeance this year, with temperatures soaring and humidity hitting peak levels, amplifying the usual moans and groans about the great British weather!
But if it’s uncomfortable for some outside, imagine what effects high temperatures and poor air quality have in offices and workplaces up and down the country – with every °C above 25°C leading to a 2% loss in productivity and CO2 levels of 1000ppm having the same effect as consuming 2 pints of beer! – so scientific evidence tells us.
IRIS IoT Solutions are leading several regional initiatives to understand and improve the modern workplace environment with Wellness in Workplace programs being trialled in both commercial and public sector buildings. Deploying discreet, unobtrusive, LoRa sensors to monitor Temperature, Humidity and CO2, linked to a cloud based analytics and visualisation platform via a stand-alone cellular Gateway, IRIS is not only enabling employers to optimise environmental conditions for the benefit of their workforces, the real-time data generated by the programs allows building heating and ventilation systems to be dynamically controlled for greater efficiency and optimum operating cost.
And by adding further sensors to monitor movement and ‘people counting’, IRIS is providing valuable information on how efficiently valuable building space is being used. With modern ‘mobile’ workforces and open plan office designs, enabling efficient use of available workspace for the comfort and convenience of employees is essential, but with the significant associated costs to workspaces, no less than ensuring that the available workspace is being efficiently utilised. Real time information, driving real time booking systems and ‘hot desking’ initiatives, improves flexibility, increases productivity and reduces cost.
And so whilst we should all take the opportunity to invest some time to get outdoors and enjoy the summer, enlightened businesses are taking the time to look indoors at how the introduction of some simple IoT initiatives can greatly improve the outlook for their colleagues and the performance of their business.