TARGET VALUES FOR THERMAL FACTORS: AN OVERVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS
The main purpose for the heating and air conditioning of work spaces is to provide an environment that is acceptable and does not impair the health and performance of the occupants. During production processes and in the external environment it may be necessary to work in unacceptable conditions for a limited time period. However, it must be ensured that these conditions do not impair the health of the employees. Light, noise, air quality, and the thermal environment are all factors that influence the acceptability of conditions for and performance of the occupants. This section will only deal with the thermal environment. Several standards dealing with methods for the evaluation of the thermal environment have been published by international standard organizations such as ISO and CEN.
This section deals with the ISO standards, which have been or are being prepared by ISO/TC159/SC5/WG1 and CEN/TC122/WG11. An overview of the standards issued and the documents under preparation is given in Table 6.2. CEN Technical Report CR 1752 will also be used in this section.1 Several of these standards may be used as the basis tor the design and evaluation of buildings, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems, and protective equipment (clothing) and the optimization of work/rest schedules.
The basic philosophy has been to standardize evaluation methods, with recommended limit values for the different parameters or indices listed in informative annexes. These or other values may then be adapted in national rules for the thermal environment.
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