Indoor air quality on top of mind for business owners and facility managers
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, there is unprecedented demand from businesses for fresh, cool air. We all acknowledge outside air as a core component of healthy and comfortable buildings. Evaporative cooling can be the best ventilation system for factories, warehouses and businesses all around Europe.
Evaporative Cooling only uses water and little electricity to cool outside air. This way, evaporative cooling never recirculates indoor stale air, same as traditional air conditioners do. Who wants to breath someone else’s air? No one!
Improved Indoor Air Quality
Workplace IAQ Benefits
- SAFER-Air™ 100% continuous fresh, filtered outside air
- Increased Oxygen, reduced CO2 and VOC levels are shown to improve productivity of workers and to support health and well-being
- Provide spot cooling for worker comfort and productivity in manufacturing
- Displace fumes and pollutants in manufacturing and warehouse applications
- Reduce the spread of airborne viruses
Frequently Asked Questions
Evaporative Cooling - Indoor Air Quality FAQs
How does evaporative cooling affect indoor air quality?
Evaporative cooling systems can dramatically improve Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), as they introduce 100% continuous fresh outside air, never recirculating indoor stale air. This has become crucial after the Covid-19 pandemic, not only for industrial spaces, but also for offices, warehouses, schools, and any other workspace. Moreover, evaporative coolers can dilute indoor air, inhibiting the spread of germs and viruses.
Breezair evaporative coolers, when sized to the space, replace the stale air in your industrial plant every few minutes. Creating a positive air pressure that pushes out stale air and pollutants through open windows and doors (or extract system), while the system is cooling your building.
What are the health risks associated with poor indoor air quality in buildings?
The first risk to be considered, associated with poor indoor air quality, is the spread of viruses and bacteria. In industrial plants, we could also consider the risk of breathing the air coming from production, chemical processes, gases, solvents and much more. If we also consider the risks connected to high temperatures, such as heat stroke, asthma and other health conditions, we understand the importance of installing evaporative cooling in your industrial plant or commercial space.
How can evaporative cooling systems be used to improve indoor air quality?
Evaporative cooling can be installed in industrial spaces, factories, warehouses, commercial offices, schools, shops, and many more applications to improve Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). They can increase the ventilation rates and push out the stale indoor air, that can have implications for employee health and wellbeing.
What are the best practices for maintaining indoor air quality in buildings with evaporative cooling systems?
You need to ensure the evaporative cooling system is correctly sized for your space and also ensure that the extract fans (or building openings) counterbalance the air intake from the evaporative cooling system.
You can contact us if you have more questions or reach out to your local distributor.
How can I test the indoor air quality in my industrial plant or office that uses an evaporative cooling system and what steps can I take to improve it?
There are many air quality monitors available in the market: you can measure the concentration of CO2 , Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), dust and pollen particles and so forth to understand what the current situation in your building is. Breezair evaporative coolers can work in conjunction with such monitoring systems, to ensure Indoor Air Quality is kept at a certain level in the building. You can contact our technical department to learn more.
To view more FAQs please visit our comprehensive Frequently Asked Questions page.
Evaporative cooling as hyper-efficient ventilation system
Seeley International is a global leader in evaporative cooling technology with offices all over the world, including Europe.
It is paramount for building owners to protect their employees and customers. How to better protect them than through the health benefits of fresh air? This needs to be done without sacrificing energy efficiency and comfort. For this reason, many consumers are switching from refrigerated or direct expansion cooling to evaporative cooling.
In this vision, Seeley International’s evaporative cooling technology provides a complete change of air every few minutes (6). In fact, the evaporative process relies on air flow, with cool air entering through ducts and then exiting through dedicated vents. Moreover, the cool air provided through such ventilation system is not stale or recycled, but 100% fresh. For all these reasons, it is the most efficient way to deliver cooled, outside air.
As a consequence, the challenge for many businesses in Europe, particularly with ever-changing weather is to maintain a comfortable indoor climate without compromising fresh, outside air.
Evaporative cooling remains the most beneficial form of ventilation system. The ability of evaporative air conditioning to supply 100% fresh, cool, outside air makes it the cooling option of choice for business owners and managers. Many of them nowadays are really serious about improving air quality inside their commercial and industrial buildings.
When it comes to healthy living in your workplace, everyone deserves the best. Evaporative air conditioning will let you breathe a well-deserved sigh of relief.
Climate Control solutions: evaporative cooling
Market leading evaporative cooling solutions by Seeley International can offer comparable comfort to direct expansion cooling, with superior energy efficiency and savings up to 86% on the running costs(7).
In this scenario, evaporative cooling remains one of the oldest and most beneficial forms of climate control. The ability of evaporative air conditioning to supply 100% fresh, cool, outside air is a growing choice for cooling industrial plants, storage facilities and many other businesses.
The importance of ventilation and Indoor Air Quality for businesses
REHVA (Federation of European Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Associations) recently confirmed that ventilation measures are amongst the most important engineering controls in the infection control.(1)
Moreover, they suggest to increase ventilation rates and operation time of all air conditioning equipment, considering that the main recommendation is to always avoid recirculation, either centralized or at room level. Regarding this point, it is essential to switch air handling units with recirculation to 100% outdoor air.
More worldwide contributions:
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends particular precautions. They include the avoidance of enclosed spaces with poor ventilation and to ensure good environmental ventilation in all closed settings (2).
Furthermore, the American Society for Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) is clear in its recommendation of the importance to increase in outdoor air ventilation of buildings (3).
Finally, leading academics have also highlighted the critical role of indoor air quality and ventilation. Shelly Miller, Professor Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder has expressed this. “The safest indoor space is one that constantly has lots of outside air replacing the stale inside air … the more fresh, outside air inside a building, the better.” (4)
Experts agree that the HVAC industry has a critical role in the health of our buildings.
It is an endorsement for facility managers to increase the amount of outdoor air coming inside. This can prevent from recirculating the same stale indoor air over and over, when this air contains viruses and germs.
The most contemporary and relevant example of this is COVID-19 and its ability to transmit through small, airborne particles.
For this reason, there is no surprise that companies like Seeley International are seeing a rise of interest in evaporative cooling technologies. The market for delivering cooled outside air as efficiently as possible will continue to grow. This is even more true with the world getting warmer and demand for healthy buildings growing stronger.
References:
- https://www.rehva.eu/activities/covid-19-guidance.
- World Health Organization: Transmission of SARS-CoV-2: implications for infection prevention precautions.
- ASHRAE: Guidance for Building Operations During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
- The Conversation: How to use ventilation and air filtration to prevent the spread of coronavirus indoors.
- The Western Cooling Efficiency Center (WCEC).
- Based on published research articles, NATA Laboratory test results and publicly sourced data.
- Seeley International’s running costs comparison is a calculation based on assumptions including Building dimensions 900m2 floor area x 6m high; Cooling time 12rs/day, 6 summer months/year; Indoor temperature 25°C; Internal building heat load 13.5kW; Fresh air 4500 l/sec; Refrigerated A/C COP 3; External ambient conditions based on 2018 Madrid (Spain) weather data; Power cost 0.11Euro/kWh; Water cost 1,5Euro/kl; Electricity Generation CO2 equivalent 340gCO2eq/kWh. The comparison should be used as a general guide only.
- Climate Wizard Supercool (indirect/direct option) adds a small amount of moisture to the supply air.