Brissie school a big fan of cool conditions

The research is in, comfortable people are productive people as Brisbane Bayside College (BBSC) in the city’s bayside area has found out.

The school struggled to keep its multi-purpose hall cool and comfortable for students and staff, especially during exams, sporting events, and assemblies.

Big Ass Fans installed PFX3.0 fans to evenly distribute wall-to-wall airflow in the hall, resulting in a much higher comfort and control level.

You can get an idea of how effective a cool school is with Big Ass Fans’ productivity calculator on their website, built from NASA-based research, it demonstrates how much money institutions can save when they install fans.

The company has worked with over 1,200 schools who have found fans are an economically and environmentally sustainable solution to cooling.

The research has revealed the optimal performance for tests and tasks is lower than 22°C. Psychological tests and school tasks can be expected to increase on average by 20 per cent if classroom temperatures are lowered from 30°C to 20°C.

Susan Long, registered Psychologist and Clinical Services Manager with Workplace Wellness Australia – a leading provider of proactive employee assistance programs – said, “Extreme heat environments make cognitive functions more difficult, including concentration, focus, learning, decision making, and even physical activities, such as sport. Heat conditions need to be considered as its impact on our cognitive functioning is pivotal to our learning outputs and performance.

“Increased temperatures can cause us to feel uncomfortable emotionally, leading often to irritability, frustration and decreased tolerance of other people.

“As humans, we are wired for comfort both in our environment and in our social interactions, typically choosing to avoid high heat environments. Temperature control on the other hand, assists us to want to engage in tasks and then function better when we do.”