News analysis with BESA


Building services stepping up critical support


The building engineering industry remains busy despite the Covid-19 lock down as its engineers are in demand to keep buildings functioning as normal to support essential operations such as the NHS and food suppliers


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he department for Business, Industry and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) confirmed that many building services specialists should continue travelling to sites during the crisis because they were carrying out vital activities that were helping to save lives such as maintaining heating, hot water, ventilation, electrical and building management systems. During a webinar hosted by BESA, an official from BEIS confirmed that building maintenance should continue as normal, subject to compliance with Public Health England guidance, the government’s social distancing policy and the site operating guidance published by the Construction Leadership Council. “Building maintenance is helping to save lives,” the


official told the webinar adding that “people who fix crucial safety issues in buildings, including plumbers maintaining boilers for the elderly and vulnerable, must be able to keep working. They are carrying out important work”.


BESA members have been reporting high levels of enquiries, particularly from facilities managers (FMs) facing unprecedented building maintenance challenges. Chief executive David Frise (pictured above), who is chairing a series of daily Covid-19 update webinars (www.thebesa.com/covid19), pointed out that maintenance was essential “to keep schools, hospitals, care facilities and supermarkets operating and so these workers must be able to continue travelling to critical sites during the current lock down period”. “They are not just taking up space on the tube. They are carrying out crucial work,” he said. “If you want essential services, you need building services.”


Solution


Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are “part of the solution and not part of the problem”, added Graeme Fox, who


!" April 2020


heads up the UK’s F-Gas register REFCOM. He said rumours that air conditioning helped to circulate the virus had no foundation in science. His comments were backed up by REHVA, the European Federation of HVAC associations, which also advised that humidification and air conditioning had no practical effect on transmission of the virus. It has issued guidance showing that Covid-19 is unlike some other viruses in that it is fairly resistant to environmental changes and is susceptible only to high relative humidities above 80% and temperatures above 30˚C.


It advised that heating and cooling systems should be operated normally to ensure buildings can continue to support critical activities and maintain the health and wellbeing of occupants.


Mr Frise also pointed out that the risk presented by poorly maintained HVAC systems was well established. For example, bird droppings in air handling units at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow was linked to the death of two patients who had contracted fungal infections as a result.


“Also, with increasing numbers of people working from home and vulnerable people distancing themselves or self-isolating, proper building maintenance and ventilation is critical to ensuring their ongoing health and wellbeing,” he said. Nathan Wood, chair of the BESA Health & Well- being in Buildings group (pictured opposite), said maintenance of ventilation systems would be increasingly important as the crisis unfolded,


but also urged the sector to show its innovative side by looking for new solutions in the face of the outbreak.


His company, Kent-based Farmwood M&E, has built a prototype fogging machine that can propel a probiotic air cleaner into the air backed up by a bank of specialist filters that will capture/absorb pollutants. A patented multiple UV reactor chamber can then destroy any airborne pathogens/viruses. “Our understanding of this threat is changing all the time, but we now know that it is airborne (aerosol) and, therefore, we need to bring all of our expertise in filtration and air cleaning to bear,” said Mr Wood. “Using probiotics is better than chemical disinfectants because the latter destroys absolutely everything – the good and the bad bacteria – whilst also polluting the air with harmful chemicals. “As well as providing good quality filters, assessed to the international performance standard (ISO16890), we should also be using proven clean air technologies,” he added. “Air quality monitoring is also a readily available and affordable technology, which can be paired with basic ventilation products via the internet of things (IoT) to create smart systems that can respond to changing conditions.” He said ventilation engineers and maintainers must go further than minimum ventilation rates and look to deliver the right amount of air changes per hour for the specific occupied space. BESA also said it was important to use ULPA filters to remove virus sized particles, but that all ventilation filters should be maintained if they are not to become sources of contamination themselves.


www.heatingandventilating.net


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