This is not a question posed to Facilities Managers very often but the affect that windows have on the working environment is not to be under estimated.

More than any other building aspect, windows have an impact on everything we do. It is not human nature to be sealed away in a box and so it is the windows in our surrounding environment that broaden our working and living experience.

The period we have been through, when architectural glazing dominated design, has highlighted both the pros and cons of the use of glass. In general, does glazing help us to work ‘healthily’ or does it have a negatively affect upon us? The issues with glass all revolve around the fact that it is, in the main, transparent. We can see through it and at the same time, the sun streams through it. We want the natural daylight, however it comes with rays that do not help us study and work.

Now, there’s an interesting term; natural daylight. Architects have re-invented it in the last decade and in some fields like education they call it ‘Daylighting’. Designers have been telling FMs what they already knew, that daylight and outlook are good for staff and help people perform better. There has been plenty written about this over the years. For instance, a study undertaken in 2003 by Heschong Malone Group found that workers in a Call Centre – a pressurised environment where productivity is key – performed 6% faster when their external view was good. An earlier study by the same organisation, this time in the educational field found that a group of people learning under most natural daylight progressed 20% faster than those subjected to the least daylight.

So natural daylight has a positive affect and the feel-good factor contributes to the overall feeling of wellness. However, daylight inevitably comes with that negative side effect – glare. In a series of mini-tests covering memory, mental function and visual acuity undertaken by Heschong Malone, glare showed up as the key factor. The participants performed up to 17% worse in memory and 21% worse in mental function and visual acuity when glare was prevalent.

Eyes are a key factor in a healthy working environment, particularly for those working on computers. The most frequently reported workplace symptom is eyestrain at 78% and eye and vision problems are experienced by three quarters of all computer workers. Eyestrain very often leads on to more serious health problems and illness and glare is a major contributor to this.

The final factor in the equation of how ‘healthy’ windows are is heat gain. This will almost certainly become more of an issue with the generally accepted forecast that summers are going to get hotter in the UK resulting in the Government issuing a ‘Heatwave’ guide.

When people are excessively hot at work not only does productivity drop but accidents are more likely to happen. A study undertaken by Wyon et al in the USA some while ago found that at 75°F productivity fell by 40% when compared to 68°F. Another study by Vernon et al, based on the same temperature differentials, showed that accidents are 30% more likely to occur. Low productivity and health problems created by excess heat and glare are a drain on resource and a costly burden on any organisation’s budget.

Transmitted heat can render areas near windows as non-working areas when a study by Hartkopf found that a window location is one of the main influences leading to a 20 – 25% reduction in staff health complaints.

Is there a solution to the negative affects of glazing on the working environment? Some people feel that closing blinds is the solution but this reduces natural daylight (the single biggest contributor to the feeling of wellbeing) and can create greater glare issues. In any case, closing the blinds does not stop the heat rays from entering the building – so doing this only delays the inevitable.

This is where the latest innovations in solar control window film technology come in. Window film works on the simple premise that it is better to keep the extremes of glare and heat out of the building in the first place. Such are the developments that there are effective solar control window films that allow through almost as much natural daylight as glass.

And one last factor. When heat is allowed into the workplace inevitably fans, cooling devices and air conditioning are switched on and switched up  to disperse it. This adds to the building’s carbon footprint and wastes energy.

So applying solar control window film can result in a healthier bank balance too.