Acoustic comfort contribution to the overall indoor environmental quality in workplaces

Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) expresses the combined effect of thermal, acoustic, lighting conditions and indoor air quality, for its impact on comfort perception in workplaces. The importance assigned to the four IEQ domains is not equal in the main Building Performance Certification Programs (LEED, WELL, BREEAM). Acoustic comfort is one of the less accounted despite it significantly affects occupants’ global comfort, health, well-being and work productivity, due to noise disturbance. Furthermore, acoustic comfort perception is influenced by occupants’ behavior and related to the concepts of anthropic noise, speech privacy and discretion. This study analyses the different weight of IEQ domains on global comfort and defines parameters functional to occupants’ comfort assessment. To this aim, acoustic parameters have been analyzed and selected among the ones defined by standards and Building Performance Certification Programs, to additionally ascertain that defined values ensure comfort conditions.