Personal control and environmental user satisfaction in office buildings: Results of case studies in the Netherlands

Personal control is one of the influential factors for user satisfaction and environmental comfort due to its physical and psychological impacts. This paper aims to identify the relationship between the degree of personal control over indoor environmental conditions and user satisfaction with thermal and visual comfort. Trying to answer the question, field studies on user control were conducted in 5 office buildings in the Netherlands. Occupants assessed their perceived satisfaction online by means of a questionnaire. Based on the dataset, Pearson's Chi-Square test was conducted to investigate the relationship. The results showed that a higher controllability leads to more satisfaction in terms of thermal and visual comfort. The research also revealed the psychological impact of personal control on user satisfaction by showing differences in perceived satisfaction according to “no control” and “do not have” between thermal and visual comfort. Personal control of ventilation was the most significant factor influencing the satisfaction with thermal comfort. These findings provide support to workplace management and to the design of personal environmental control systems.