During the current COVID-19 pandemic, effective office ventilation has become essential.

Providing both fresh air, and extracting the stale air from your offices and work space is paramount for getting your staff back to work, and their offices fully functioning again.

Building and Facilities managers will be changing the way they operate in maintaining the buildings in line with the H.S.E, CIBSE and Refcom recommendations. Ventilation in the workplace regulations are changing, with CIBSE recommending both air ventilation systems and air conditioning systems are maintained and checked more regularly. If at present the systems are maintained every 6 months, they recommend this is changed to quarterly maintenance / filter cleans.

Irrespective of good practice, the volume of HVAC maintenance will increase and filters will have to be cleaned regularly. At Modern Facilities we can design, install and service workplace ventilation equipment.

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Workplace ventilation systems

Tips for air ventilation systems during the COVID-19 pandemic:

  • Clean all filters within the workplace ventilation system.
  • Ensure the internal ductwork and AHUs are clean.
  • Increase the volume of fresh air and extracted air being supplied and removed from the building,  reducing the chances of any possible virus remaining within the office air.
  • Extend the operation times of supply and extract mechanical ventilation systems. Start ventilation at normal speed at least two hours before building usage time. Switch to lower speed two hours after the building usage time. Keep ventilation on 24/7 with lower ventilation rates when people are absent.
  • An on-demand system is when the ventilation is increased or enabled from an external source. This could be due to temperature, or generally a CO2 detector. When the ventilation system is using a CO2 detector, the fresh air increases when the workspace becomes more contaminated with Carbon Dioxide (CO2). Lower the CO2 detector’s setpoint to allow the systems to increase the quantity of air changes within the workspace.
  • Change the settings on the heat recovery ventilation unit controllers to prevent recirculated air entering the building.
  • Ensure the internal ductwork and AHUs are clean.
Office ventilation

Firstly we would like to state that because of the nature of how the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is progressing our information here is as up to date as it can be.

We are basing our actions and decisions on our experience but also industry and government guidance.
Our strategy is one that puts our employees and our customers at the centre of our approach to dealing with this current situation.

We want to reassure you that we will constantly evaluate the situation and make changes accordingly when necessary.

For industry guidance on COVID-19 (coronavirus) and Air Con/Ventilation systems from Refcom (BESA) click here.

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Prevention

First and foremost your HVAC systems should be thoroughly cleaned and serviced to ensure they are providing the best conditioned environment possible. We suggest:

  • Thorough chemical cleaning of all HVAC equipment
  • Remove airborne contaminants by making sure systems have correct filtering and are well maintained
  • Regular maintenance
  • Clean ventilation

Changes we have made

In order to protect the safety of all our customers and our engineers from COVID-19 (Coronavirus) we have already made a number of important changes:

  • All staff wear correct PPE including gloves and masks where appropriate
  • Distancing rules applied where possible
  • Risk assessments now include evaluation of COVID-19 risks
  • Recommend all ventilation systems to be set to full fresh air modes instead of air rotation

COVID-19 air con and ventilation services

We are suggesting that the best approach to maintain healthy ecosystems for you, your family or your colleagues would be as follows:

  • Completing a deep chemical clean – to make sure no bacteria exists throughout your HVAC systems
  • Making sure regular maintenance is carried out – incorporating filter checking/replacing.

Air con cleaning products

We use a number of products when completing a deep clean of an air conditioning system, many of which are advanced bacterial cleansing solutions designed to kill 99.9% of bacteria that could be in your ducts/systems. Examples of high disinfectant products:

  • Advanced RTU ECD – Evaporator Cleaner and Disinfectant
  • Advanced Easycare
  • Advanced CondenCide – Alkaline Evaporator Cleaner and Disinfectant
  • Advanced Gel ECD – Evaporator Cleaner and Disinfectant

Summary

Due to the current COVID-19 virus pandemic we would suggest:

  • Setting ventilation systems to fresh air modes and not fan only.
  • Deep cleaning systems as a precaution.
  • Carry out regular maintenance to ensure system health.

If you are interested in a Deep Chemical Clean or maintenance/service please contact us via the form below.

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Let us know which service you’re interested in and we’d be happy to provide you with a free, no obligation to buy quote.