The most important development in workplace technology in the last five years is one of the least talked about,according to Mike Bird, MD of Cambridge based workplace design and management consultancy breathe group.He’s on a mission to change that.
“While everybody is talking about wireless technology,”he says,“the whole office landscape has been changed by something as mundane as the flat screen TFT monitor.It affects so much about the way we work and the way we manage buildings that I’m frankly astonished that more hasn’t been written about it.It’s changed the way HVAC is specified,changed space planning,occupancy densities,furniture design,energy consumption and waste disposal.Maybe we take it for granted,but we shouldn’t.”
One man who agrees with him wholeheartedly is Tabish Aiman, Commercial Director of DPG who supply monitor arms and other workplace accessories.“The impact of this single product over the past few years has been nothing short of revolutionary,’he says.‘If you go back just two years,you’ll still see some doubts about the cost and supply of TFT monitors and some questions over their uptake.You won’t hear them now.”
According to Tabish and Mike,the five main ways in which the TFT monitor has changed the workplace can be summarised as:
Saving space
Mike Bird:The need to accommodate CRT monitors was the main reason why heavily engineered core-unit desks(with large corner sections) were developed as a standard during the 1980s and 1990s.TFT monitors allow furniture designers and space planners to work with rectilinear footprints and the effect has been profound.
Typically the application of a rectilinear workstation model will result in a net space saving of between 20 percent and 25 percent per workstation.How you use this space saving is up to you,but many firms now use at least some of this saving to provide breakout areas and meeting space for employees.
One other aspect of this is the way that the TFT monitor is better suited to certain business sectors.Dealer desks,for example,often need more than one monitor and multiple flat screens,possibly supported by monitor arms,are far better than CRT monitors in this type of environment.
Similarly,in customer facing settings,the flat monitor offers less of a barrier to communication.
Lower energy consumption
Mike Bird:A CRT monitor has a typical energy consumption of around 104W,compared to just 34W for a TFT monitor(although some 17” TFT monitors have been measured at under 17W).In a typical working office environment with PCs used for around 2500 hours a year and with normal usage levels to take account of computers on standby and other factors,this equates to an annual cost saving of some 157kWh per PC per year.
HVAC
Mike Bird:CRT monitors emit a lot more heat than TFT monitors,up to 10 times more in fact.So the widespread use of flat screens has a profound impact on the buildings HVAC systems even allowing for potentially higher occupancy densities.In small offices with high numbers of CRT monitors,air conditioning may have been essential which may not be the case with TFT monitors.It is hard to provide hard and fast rules about this but research from Sun Microsystems published in 1999 put the HVAC cost saving of using TFT monitors at £4.42 per monitor.
One aspect of this that is less well known is the way in which CRT monitors have an effect on poor air quality.They emit and disperse far more particles than an equivalent TFT monitor and also have the rather unpleasant habit of frying dust particles before chucking them out as carbonised airborne specks for people to breathe in.
Ergonomics
Tabish Aiman:Flat screen monitors are good for you in lots of ways. The way they produce images,their higher resolution and their lower glare make them better for your eyes which in turn has other business benefits.Research undertaken in Germany recently showed that in a visual task,search speeds were 22 percent faster for TFT users.TFT screens are inherently flicker free,whereas a CRT refreshes itself 70 or less times a second.
In pure ergonomic terms,it is also easier to position a TFT screen to provide the optimum viewing distance for each user.This is particularly so when screens are used in conjunction with monitor arms.
This is not just a simple matter of reducing eyestrain depending on the vision of the user,but is also about personal preference and accommodating the needs of different users.This sits neatly with the current focus of many workplace specialists on inclusivity, especially for disabled and older users driven by research such as that from the Helen Hamlyn Centre and legislation such as the DSE regulations.
Environmental benefits
Mike Bird:As well as the environmental benefits of lower energy bills,there are a number of other important areas in which TFT monitors help.Obviously,they are lighter and use less packaging,so installation is cheaper and easier,as are reconfigurations.For those who store packaging for future moves there is a consequent saving in storage costs.The relative lightness of the monitors make it less likely that people will injure themselves moving them.
TFT monitors have a longer life span.The life span of a monitor is measured in the length of time it takes for the monitor to reach 50 percent of its original brightness.
For TFT screens this is around 50,000 hours of life compared to just 20,000 for CRT monitors.
Finally,the TFT screen is easier to manage for companies to comply with the WEEE Directive which came into force last year.
CRTs are classified as hazardous waste by the EU largely because of their high lead content and phosphors.The EU has also set a target of recycling 75 percent of CRT glass.Of course,the WEEE Directive applies to all electronic equipment but the costs and disruption associated with the disposal or reuse of CRTs are substantially higher.
