2020 the year of COVID 19 has caused a sharp focus on public building ventilation systems. Government studies, engineers, suppliers, and contractors all have important roles to play to ensure the safety of personnel in any public building. Studies have found that we are now spending 90% of our time indoors which emphasises the importance of indoor air quality.
One of the key improvements we can make is the increased introduction of fresh air to our buildings and the decrease of recirculated air will promote healthy indoor air combined with improved filtration. The introduction of more fresh air has been recommended by the World Health Organisation since the Covid pandemic. Using 100% fresh air in the past has presented many difficult issues to overcome, but now we have new technology in heat recovery which enables buildings to use 100% fresh air without additional running costs and in some cases where indirect evaporative cooling can be used running costs are significantly lowered.
Indoor air quality has a significant effect on employee health and safety, improvement of employee productivity, and safety of the public when entering a building.
Facility managers and building owners should consider using 100% fresh air when next replacing old equipment or designing systems for new buildings taking into consideration that our buildings should be prepared for not only the current Covid lessons but that we have safer buildings for any future viruses or heath issues that may be ahead of us in the future. 100% fresh air in every building should be the goal of the industry which will make our future more sustainable, safer, and healthier.
Armcor Air Solutions manufactures a range of energy-recovery solutions including air-to-air heat exchange, dehumidification units, heat recovery package units and indirect evaporative cooling.
Source: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/ventilation.html
