Air Conditioning Comfort as an Experience

There is perhaps no bigger pleasure than the pleasure of being comfortable, which is one of the reasons that millions of people around the world have air conditioning installed in their homes. However, an air conditioner’s ability to transform a room’s environment into a more pleasant one is not exclusive to the home. We see air conditioning being used in commercial locations like shopping centers, waiting rooms, cinemas, hotels and restaurants, all with the intention to reach the same goal: To elevate the experience through comfort.

 

Being comfortable isn't just related to air temperature. It takes into account several other environmental factors, including ambient temperature, airspeed, and humidity, and is experienced differently per person.

 

For example, a person experiencing optimal thermal comfort means they are neither too cold nor too hot, but one person’s optimal thermal comfort will be perceived differently by another.

 

Most of the factors that add up to thermal comfort and indoor comfort can be created and / or controlled air conditioning. This is why air conditioning has an important part in establishing and maintaining the ideal indoor environment. In this article we look at comfort in commercial spaces where it plays a large part in generating the right experience.

 

Hotels

When we talk about comfort in hotels, we're not only talking about the rooms. We also need to remember that there are many spaces in hotels where guests expect to feel comfortable during their stay; reception, breakfast rooms, the spa and gym, and communal areas for relaxing. Basically, comfort should be a continuous experience from checking in to checking out to facilitate the sense of disconnection, relaxation and, most importantly, the feeling of being on holiday.

 

A study highlighted by verywellmind.com found that 3 days after a vacation, people’s mood improved, levels of anxiety were lower and they felt rested when compared to their state before a vacation. In some cases, these changes were still present 5 weeks later. Hotels have a key role in manifesting these feelings, and indoor ambience is vital.

 

Focusing on temperature and air quality, communal spaces need to accommodate the preferences of all, which means maintaining a flexible yet consistent comfort standard in relation to external factors in order to create the optimal atmosphere. However, when in the hotel room, the experience of comfort is quite different should be personalized, and giving guests the ability to customize their room’s temperature further improves the feeling of comfort experienced. This in turn improves guest sentiment towards their stay, further improving their mood.

Creating comfort with air in Hotels

 

Restaurants and Bars

Restaurants and bars are more than merely spaces for dining or quenching your thirst. They are places for socializing, catching up with friends and enjoying a calm moment with loved ones after a busy day. Because of this, it's crucial that these spaces transmit comfort as experiencing so will encourage patrons to stay for longer. Aside from welcoming staff, well planned decoration, lighting and music to create the right mood, it comes down to air temperature and quality.

 

The experience of comfort in a restaurant or bar is should invite a person to feel at ease in the space they are in, and the right air conditioning equipment will help maintain comfortable temperatures in each corner and across in open areas. Not only will this encourage people to stay longer, its positive impact could potentially lead to a customer leaving a positive review online or recommending the establishment to friends and family.

 

Retail Stores

A pleasant environment can make all the difference when a customer steps into your store, presenting the deciding factor on how long they will remain. That's why it's essential to incorporate the well-being of your clientele into the experience you want to offer in store. Doing so can boost footfall, sales, and earn recommendations and repeat customers. Places where the indoor air quality feels fresh and clean can encourage people to spend more time in a store and, potentially, more money.

 

The buyers mood is hard to gauge especially in locations where mid-season temperatures are extreme. During summer, because the temperature rises, cortisol levels, the hormone that causes stress, increases, so helping the customer keep their cool is a must. Even in winter, when customers enter a store in their thick jacket and the indoor temperature is too high, they are likely to take their business elsewhere. However, the same goes for generating spaces that are too cold. This, along with other ambience factors like smell, is one of the most common reason why customers would exit a shop quickly, so setting an optimal, comfortable temperature in tune with the outdoor weather is a must.

 

Furthermore, the right indoor climate is much more than just a tact to get customers to stay. The right environment is also necessary for your employees. After all, they spend most of their day inside the store and their experience of comfort will vary wildly from that of a browsing customer, and making sure that they are comfortable will help with mood and productivity.

 

Waiting Rooms

Inside a clinic or hospital, one of the busiest places is the waiting room, and it’s a place teeming with various emotions; people waiting for their name to be called out, waiting to see a loved one, for the results of an exam or to undergo a procedure. In places like this, it is vital that the environment is comfortable and encourages people to feel calm and relaxed.

 

From the decor, to the seats, to the smell and the air quality, there are a lot of factors that impact how someone experiences a waiting room which, in turn, affects their disposition. Fresh feeling, ventilated spaces can boost moods and reduce the chance of spaces feeling close or “charged”.

 

Beyond the waiting room, if a patient experiences general comfort during and whilst healing, they are more likely to recover more quickly than those who are in environments that produce tension and stresses. Similarly, waiting rooms in office receptions are spaces where people need a comfortable place to sit while waiting to be seen or to go to a meeting. By opting to produce spaces that communicate a sense of comfort, stress and anxiety can be kept to a minimum.  

 

The spaces mentioned above are just a handful of the places where comfort has a significant impact on a person’s experience. This, as a result, contributes to a person’s well-being, something that is increasingly important in business and in our personal lives as we search for satisfaction and quality of life.

The impact of indoor air on employees

 

Comfort is Essential for Well-Being

In addition to being necessary to comply with what is determined by legislation, thermal comfort and air quality is essential to an individual's well-being. By not paying attention to these, it can have short-term and long-term effects on mental and physical health.

 

Putting air conditioning or ventilation solutions in place means a business or homeowner can take steps that help avoid creating such environments.

 

Moving away from commercial spaces and into the office, when thinking about the well-being of office workers, for optimal conditions to be maintained it is necessary to deploy various tactics, and one of those is air conditioning. Often spaces that are effectively sealed, the need for a source of air and ventilation is needed. In smaller spaces, temperatures can be preset or employees themselves can manage the conditions, adapting to the needs of colleagues and visitors as ambient temperatures fluctuate through the day. In fact, in the office, well-being can increase productivity by up to 12%.

 

Comfort, in the wider sense, and well-being are unavoidably linked and have a direct impact on each other. Elements of what makes us feel comfortable lead us to having better well-being; peace, sense of security, physical comfort, living conditions and more, all of which influence our state of being healthy and happy, referred to as our well-being.  

 

Then it’s no wonder that from the home to the workplace, people are interested in investing their time and energy in things that make them feel better. And the right atmosphere can make all the difference.

 

The Tools for Creating Indoor Comfort

 

Creating indoor comfort relies on various attributes; decoration, layout, lighting, distribution of furniture and, of course, the indoor air quality and temperature. For managing air quality and temperature, Hitachi Air Conditioning products are indispensable in helping generate all manner of comfortable environments, from households to commercial places. Within the ranges offered for businesses, Commercial Air Conditioning and VRF systems, you can select from a wide variety of solutions that adpated to business needs and operational requirements. Hitachi Ventilation and Air Renewal[BT3]  products further enhance

 

You’ll also find a range of specialized components, filters and controls that can be integrated into your Hitachi air conditioning system that further improve the quality and safety of the comfort offered. Further still, they help reduce symptoms of Sick Building Syndomre, which can be felt in any indoor environment, residential or professional, thus helping spaces remain healthier for occupants.

 

By keeping the topics touched upon in mind, you can take the right steps to fostering environments that benefit all that step into them.

 

If you want to learn more about the Hitachi Air Conditioning solutions that can help you create and maintain the optimal indoor ambiance and air quality for your business, see what ranges suit you best here.

 

 

Johnson Controls-Hitachi, MEA

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