I recently had an opportunity to attend a conference titled "Best Practices in Facility Management." The attendees consisted of facility managers from Fortune 500- and large government-owned facilities in excess of 1 million sq ft. The agenda included presentations on a wide range of issues including building maintenance, utilities, outsourcing, space utilization, and custodial best practices. I was impressed with the importance placed on the feedback ratings from the building occupants, using the results of customer satisfaction surveys to help identify the best methods and techniques in facility management.
As the featured speaker on HVAC issues, I was looking forward to hearing how a group oriented to maximizing occupant satisfaction would deal with the complex issues of HVAC design, operation, and maintenance. I asked the audience how they defined HVAC system effectiveness. A large majority stated that as long as the temperature was maintained between 72 degrees and 76 degrees F, that the system was effective. When asked how they knew if their system was achieving this goal, most talked about maintaining and tracking a log of customer complaints over time. My response to that was that I wasn't sure if they were measuring HVAC effectiveness or their occupants' tolerance for pain!