Indoor air quality


Ventilation and filtration key to good IAQ


Hern Yau, product manager at Mitsubishi Electric discusses the role of ventilation and filtration in supporting wellbeing


T


he link between the air we breathe and our health and wellbeing has been long understood, but until recently the quality of


air within buildings has often been overlooked, and given far less scrutiny. In fact, the pandemic is responsible for bringing the importance of ventilation and filtration in buildings to the fore. Ensuring indoor air is fresh and filtered is crucial


for occupant health, so it’s key that businesses address this to reassure staff that the office is a safe space to be. Technology that can monitor the quality of indoor air is key too – especially as research is finding that indoor air can be more polluted than outdoor air. Considering we spend the vast amount of our time indoors, at home, in office buildings or in spaces like gyms, restaurants and shops, it is vital that we take a closer look at how these spaces are ventilated and filtered in order to keep indoor air quality (IAQ) high and ensure occupant health and wellbeing.


The need to ventilate


Most of the air we breathe is from within our homes and offices. If this air is of poor quality, filled with harmful chemicals or pollutants, it can pose serious health risks. With the level of pollutants in office buildings reaching up to two to five times higher indoors than outdoors, we must take IAQ seriously. This situation is worsening due to growing urbanisation, as the UK’s towns and cities continue to expand as hubs for employment and living. This results in more densely built areas and higher levels of emissions from the transport needed to propel these growing populations around. Looking at this alongside the host of new building regulations that require greater air tightness in buildings, it is clear that there is a compelling case for improving the quality of air in the spaces we occupy. Clearly, this makes a strong case for needing


good ventilation in commercial buildings, especially as businesses look to prioritise occupant safety and


10 February 2022


wellbeing – and it’s now accepted that the Covid-19 virus is largely passed through airborne droplets. Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery The key to maintaining good IAQ is removing


polluted air from a building and replacing it with fresh, filtered air. It sounds like a simple process, but without the right kind of guidance, this is often overlooked. Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR)


can transfer around 80-90% of the energy from outgoing stale air to heat incoming fresh air, which means less energy is required to heat the building compared to non-heat recovering ventilation systems. When paired with building management systems, this can also be used to regulate air flow throughout an entire building. Mechanical ventilation can also deliver a slow but


constant movement of air throughout the building, unlike natural ventilation, where the air supply is less easy to regulate and control.


With the level of pollutants in office buildings reaching up to two to five times higher indoors than outdoors, we must take IAQ seriously


The role for air conditioning


Ventilation should always be the first step to consider when improving IAQ, but the challenge of delivering it is complex and must be balanced with a number of other factors. For example, the move to improve the airtightness of buildings (for better energy performance) can make achieving good IAQ more difficult. This gives an important role to air conditioning,


as the combination of good ventilation design along with the latest air conditioning and filtration technologies can deliver the air quality required,


Above: Hern Yau, product manager, Mitsubishi Electric


even in today’s airtight buildings. And it’s not essential to fit an entirely new system - there are filtration solutions available that can be added to existing air conditioning units, designed to be easy to fit onto wall-mounted units, ducted units and ceiling cassette systems.


Monitoring IAQ


Being able to monitor the effect that ventilation and filtration is having on IAQ is also going to be a vital element of health and wellbeing in the future workplace. The UK government’s Future Buildings Standard includes a proposed requirement that all new ventilation systems in offices have a ‘means of monitoring the performance of the system’, and CO2 monitoring is mentioned as a possible approach that would meet the requirements. To support this development, the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) is already working on providing guidance on approaches to monitoring IAQ in buildings, including developing a method for providing building managers with reports and certificates. Commercial spaces like hotels, leisure facilities,


medical centres, retail outlets and offices all need to carefully consider how they ensure high indoor air quality. There are lots of factors to consider, but having the energy efficient technology in place to ventilate and filter air is the best place to start, alongside investing in ways to monitor air quality and using air conditioning to support.


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