Elevated CO2 levels have a noticeable impact on human cognitive ability. Indoor environments obviously have higher CO2 levels vs outdoor, but certain offices may have worse than typical indoor levels due to poor ventilation.
"They found that, on average, a typical participant’s cognitive scores dropped 21 percent with a 400 ppm increase in CO2."
If this result is reproducible, this is quite concerning considering:
"In surveys of elementary school classrooms in California and Texas, average CO2 concentrations were above 1,000 ppm, a substantial proportion exceeded 2,000 ppm, and in 21% of Texas classrooms peak CO2 concentration exceeded 3,000 ppm."
Interesting, I had no idea. Do you think it's worth getting a CO2 monitor for a home office? I don't usually have the windows open since it's cold out. Is one person enough to elevate a small 10x10 office to cognitive impairing levels?
It’s a small investment and probably worth it if you already suspect bad ventilation. Within seconds of plugging a CO2 monitor into my bedroom outlet, the monitor was registering 1200ppm — and that was without any humans in it prior.
I disagree. It _may_ be totally worth it depending on the place. (Eg. what heating system you use, how many electronic devices there are, how big the room is.) I'd say do a little test: open the windows; if (it feels refreshing) { get one }.
Disclosure: I'm not an expert, simply got interested in this lately as I strongly feel its impact on my productivity.
https://thinkprogress.org/exclusive-elevated-co2-levels-dire...