Another weak spot that the analysis of the questionnaires and the interviews revealed is the positioning of the blind control switches within the offices. As previously mentioned in Subsection 4.1., four blind control switches are installed in every office. In some cases, the switches can easily be reached by the office occupants. In other cases, the workplaces are located at considerable distances from the switches: Occupants have to leave their workplace to operate the blinds. The situation is worst in offices occupied by two persons: In such offices, one person is typically seated next to the switches, but the other occupant always has to ask his colleague to operate the blinds for him. Even though this ensures a minimum of communication between the office workers, the constant asking for blind position modification can become a source of stress and distraction.

Possible ways to resolve this problem would be the installation of additional blind control switches in offices with two occupants and the shifting of workplaces towards the switches in offices occupied by only one person. However, this might not be easily feasible in many cases. The specific situation at the LESO-SEB offers a much more elegant way to deal with the blind control problem. All lighting, heating and blind devices are actually interconnected via an EIB-system (EIB = European Installation Bus). Most switches and sensors installed within the building are also connected to the EIB. It is also possible to connect computers to the EIB. Figure 4(left) shows a schematic overview of the installation. During another project recently carried out at laboratory, the possibility of using a portable server device (“MyHomeBox”) for blind and luminaire control via the EIB-system was studied [11]. It was demonstrated that it would be easily possible to give LESO-SEB occupants the possibility to control their luminaires and blinds via a flash application installed on their PC (see Figure 4(right) ) that communicates with the portable server device. Installing this application on all occupants’ PCs is a very interesting option for effective work comfort enhancement within the ADS-equipped LESO-SEB offices.