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Time to focus on residential IAQ


Research shows that levels of pollutants can actually be two to five times higher indoors than outdoors. Hern Yau, product manager at Mitsubishi Electric says considering we spend around 90% of our time inside, this poses a real risk to people’s health


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ith millions of people working from home – and looking set to do so at least in some form for the foreseeable future - it’s more important than ever that we focus on ensuring the air we breathe in our homes is clean and healthy, and that residential spaces are well ventilated. This comes with its own set of challenges, from being aware of the potentially harmful chemicals in products we use every day to understanding what good ventilation actually is. However, with an increased focus on our home environment as a result of the pandemic, we have reached a key moment to harness this focus and address the health risks that bad indoor air quality can pose.


Understanding the health consequences


We are all aware that polluted air can have a negative impact on our health, and in recent years we’ve seen big campaigns to reduce the number of cars idling outside of schools as parents pick up children. On top of this, there’s been a public and regulatory focus on expanding London’s Clean Air Zone to reduce the number of heavy polluting vehicles entering the more densely populated parts of the capital, and the low emissions zone will be made 18 times bigger from this October. However, indoor air quality (IAQ) usually fails to garner the same sort of attention, despite the Royal College of Physicians estimating that around 100,000 deaths a year are attributed to poor indoor air quality (IAQ), and research showing that as well as causing illness, it can lead to lethargy and long- term health issues. Mitsubishi Electric and BESA have released a guide to increase awareness about the risks of poor indoor air quality, but we must continue to educate about what can cause it, and how to improve it.


Hern Yau, product manager at Mitsubishi Electric


What’s affecting IAQ?


So, what causes poor indoor air quality beyond outdoor air infiltration? In residential settings, the main pollutant is excess humidity, which causes mould if there isn’t adequate ventilation extracting stale air and bringing fresh air in, as well as CO2 generated from living in the spaces. In addition, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are emitted in the background – they can be found in places like the furniture we sit on, the clothes we wear, fragrances/scented candles, and even the cleaning products/aerosols we use. These issues are a problem in both older housing stock and new builds, but it becomes further exacerbated in newer dwellings as they are built to be more air tight, and pollutants generated inside the building becomes trapped.


Poor indoor air quality has also been worsened by increasing urbanisation. Over the last few decades, cities across the UK have become focal points for professional lives – attracting working age people in their tens of millions into densely- built urban areas. To accommodate this, city planners have built more efficiently, placing tall buildings toe-to-toe but at the same time having to accommodate for heightened levels of transport for an increasing population. All of this means the air we breathe inside city-centre accommodation is more likely to pose health risks.


Overcoming the challenge


Once we understand how and why residential air quality can be a health concern, we need to think about how to tackle it. In some ways, the pandemic has offered us an unprecedented opportunity to rethink the way we use our homes, and has made the quality of our home environment more important than ever. As we change the setup of our living spaces, we have a chance to fundamentally improve our air quality too.


The key to this is ensuring that polluted air is removed from a building and replaced with fresh filtered air from outside – and mechanical ventilation can provide the solution. It extracts stale air continuously and efficiently, and replaces indoor air with filtered fresh air from outside. It can also incorporate heat recovery, which minimises the amount of energy lost by recovering the heat from the extracted air and transferring it to the supply of fresh air, so that it is nearer to the required indoor temperature.


Now we are aware of the potential damage that poor IAQ can cause, it’s time to do more to freshen up our homes, and make sure ventilation is on the agenda.


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