Ventilation
Indoor air quality: Addressing the issue
Lee Stones, senior product marketing manager at Glen Dimplex Heating & Ventilation, which includes the Xpelair brand, looks at the issue of indoor air quality – and how electrical wholesalers can support their customers in helping to improve the quality of air we breathe through effective ventilation products.
W
hen the Government published its draſt Clean Air Strategy for consultation last year, it set out plans to tackle emissions from a range of sources, including agriculture,
industry and homes. Acknowledging that air pollution is about more than roadside emissions
from diesel cars, the document raises – amongst other issues – the emerging health issue of indoor air quality. And in doing so, it reinvigorated the focus placed on the quality of the air we breathe indoors.
A vital issue The Clean Air Strategy notes that up to 90% of our time is spent indoors and despite years of debate around the detrimental impact of poor pollution outdoors, taking measures to identify and improve the quality of the air we breathe inside our homes and other buildings is a relatively new (yet rapidly growing) notion. In fact, the levels of some air pollutants are often far higher inside than they are outside. The biggest cause of poor indoor air quality is Volatile Organic
Compounds (VOCs), which can be emitted from a whole host of everyday 22 | electrical wholesalerFebruary 2019
items such as furniture, carpets, paints, cleaning products and even building fabrics and materials. VOCs can be detrimental to a person’s health, especially when exposed to
them for long periods of time. They can also aggravate pre-existing health conditions and cause fatigue, dizziness and headaches. Moisture is another source of poor air quality, with a risk of mould in
bathrooms or from drying damp clothes, whilst carbon monoxide, odours, carbon dioxide and tobacco smoke are all known pollutants in buildings, too. The effects of all these issues will be further increased as increasingly
stringent energy efficiency targets have driven the development of better insulated buildings, leading to a decrease in natural ventilation and even more air tightness in properties.
Domestic solutions Whilst this is a huge issue for customers working in commercial sectors such as offices, education and healthcare, the issue applies inside the home too. Especially in light of the dramatic changes we have seen in building
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