HVAC AIRING IT OUT
Healthy buildings are now recognised as a permanent, long-term requirement. Air quality is a hugely important part of this, says Dan Diehl, CEO and President of Aircuity.
The pandemic has spurred unprecedented interest in indoor air quality (IAQ). Building owners and employers are scrambling to implement IAQ solutions that facilitate a return to work, while employees want reassurances about airborne transmission and overall safety before re-entering their offi ces. Healthy buildings are now recognised as a permanent, long-term requirement.
Employers know they must provide a closely guarded, healthy environment if they want to bring teams back to the offi ce. They can impose limits on physical interaction and ensure social distancing happens, which will help. But the single most important thing building owners can do to protect workers is to invest in more sophisticated tools – tools that will help them better manage IAQ. Invariably, those tools involve technology. The demand for these technology tools has global building controls companies racing to integrate better IAQ solutions into their legacy ‘healthy buildings’ platforms.
Pre-COVID, few of the larger building controls companies offered sophisticated indoor air quality tools as part of their broader healthy-buildings solutions. While these global vendors have long offered products that nod to managing ventilation or other air quality parameters, the accuracy – and effectiveness – of those solutions has not been a priority. Instead, air quality involved more of a check-the-box approach than a substantive focus on actual measurement and control.
COVID permanently changed all that. People want to know what building owners are doing to ensure safe environments. This has spurred the big equipment companies into action, and they’re now hustling to incorporate reliable and vetted IAQ solutions into their existing building management systems. This ‘race to the top’ forces manufacturers of controls and equipment
systems to truly improve their game. To upgrade their IAQ system offerings, the big players are partnering with ‘technology-forward’ companies – smaller, more nimble vendors with particularised IAQ expertise – to enable whole building solutions. By providing the ability to measure, control and communicate air quality, these integrated solutions increase peace of mind for both building managers and occupants.
Global climate innovator Trane Technologies is a good example. Trane’s commercial HVAC division joined forces with the industry’s healthy and sustainable ventilation leader to deliver automated, data-based indoor air quality monitoring and management solutions for building owners.
This integration adds a sophisticated IAQ solution to Trane’s healthy building offering. The integrated solution then automatically monitors and adjusts air fl ow between indoors and outdoors, which is critical to reducing airborne pathogens and contaminants – not to mention managing energy effi ciency.
Ongoing lessons Expect to see more of this kind of move by global building controls companies. By partnering with tech-forward companies, these global players answer the most commonly asked question about indoor environments: “How do I know the air is safe to breathe?”
Building managers want to know they’re taking the right steps to help ensure indoor spaces are being monitored and maintained to address the safety and health of their occupants.
The lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic will persist long after the coronavirus fades from the public consciousness. We will continuously see the positive impact good indoor air quality has on productivity, critical thinking and general wellness.
www.aircuity.com/
42 | TOMORROW’S FM
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