Building Facilities Managers need to maintain the Indoor Air Quality of their internal office areas for many reasons. Commercial buildings and offices are usually in a competitive leasing market and the tenant company occupying a building is often prepared to pay a premium rental for a building with good consistent Indoor Air Quality serving the work areas. This company will then know that its staff will be less hindered by illness and can work to maximum capability and efficiency.
Conversely fluctuating temperatures and humidity or airborne pollution can lead to poor Indoor Air Quality. These problems can mean the Sick Building Syndrome status is attributed to a building which may reduce its marketability and rental value.
Another important reason for maintaining clean indoor Air Quality is to preserve the décor and fabric of the building. Refurbishment costs to refit and decorate buildings internally are extremely expensive. Therefore Facilities managers are keen to ensure their maintenance engineers make the Air Conditioning and Ventilation plant deliver clean Indoor Air Quality. The best guidance technical standard is EN13779:2007 and that advises minimum filter class F7 and advises F7 for best clean air quality. Using Low Energy Air Filters will deliver consistent long life performance while using the minimum amount of energy.
A coordinated approach would be to ensure the existing air moving plant is fitted with the optimum best filter for clean air quality and energy efficiency in the space envelope of the AHU filter plenum. The filter mountings for the secondary filters need to be front withdrawal frames to enable proper sealing. Low Energy Air Filters will maintain plant efficiency, coils and duct cleanliness and hygiene downstream of the filter section. The role of the HVAC air filter is usually underestimated and extremely important. For consistent optimum low Life Cycle Cost performance it is recommended that Micro-fibre glass media filters are used instead of synthetic electro-statically charged medias.
FM’s are now in a position to select a package of measures for their plant with short payback times (under a year) that will deliver clean Indoor Air Quality and reduce energy and maintenance costs.
HVAC air filters and ducting need regular inspection to ensure that building Indoor Air Quality is maintained. BS 15780:2011 is the new British Standard that advised the time periods between inspections based on building type and usage. Six monthly visual inspections are a good starting point if there are no other specific guidelines recommendations available.
To arrange an AC inspection of your HVAC plant visit www.ac-inspections.co.uk
As the market leading Air Filtration company in UK and the rest of Europe, we have been making surveys and inspections of complex HVAC and process plant filter systems for many years. You can find a range of useful AC Inspection information and covers: AC Legislation, Low Energy Air Filters, Energy Performance In Buildings and look at energy saving options in UK buildings. You can visit our case studies page to see some of the projects that we have worked on or download an example of a Camfil Farr AC Inspection Report here.