Indoor air quality on top of mind for business owners and facility managers
We all acknowledge outside air as a core component of healthy and comfortable buildings. Evaporative cooling can be a great ventilation system for businesses all around Europe. This is even more true in the context of COVID-19. There is unprecedented demand from businesses for fresh, cool air. This can be delivered through evaporative cooling.
Consumers seek healthy and efficient air conditioning solution. Whether or not it is an evaporative cooler or a different ventilation system, they are likely to ask the key question of how they can deliver fresh, cool, outside air as efficiently as possible.
The importance of ventilation 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 many industry leaders 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.
Ventilation + Filtration = Indoor Air Quality
The Western Cooling Efficiency Center (WCEC) at the UC Davis Energy and Efficiency Institute (5) have released two videos covering ventilation and filtration in schools. Both are excellent resources that illustrate how ventilation and filtration work simultaneously to reduce indoor air pollutants. ( Pollutants = volatile organic compounds, respiratory aerosols and concentrated levels of CO2.)
How evaporative cooling can help with ventilation
Seeley International is a global leader in evaporative cooling technology with offices all over the world, including all European states.
The Company’s Founder and Executive Chairman, Frank Seeley, understands that building owners want 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 two 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 an evaporative 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 one of the most beneficial forms of climate control. 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 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.
As a start, the use of evaporative cooling as a climate control solution has been documented as early as the 2nd Century AD and the Chinese Han dynasty.
Also, in the Middle East where the climate is hot and dry, evaporative cooling was used as far back as 1350AD. For example, in Cairo Egypt, a building was purposely situated, to catch the wind and let it flow down the building and across a fountain which increased the relative humidity and lowered the temperature of the air. The cooled air then made its way back through wooden grills into the building to improve living conditions. Furthermore, wealthy Romans were also known to keep their homes cooler with water circulated from the aqueducts through pipes in the walls.
In addition, in medieval Persia (now Iran), the first evaporative cooling towers were built to trap wind and funnel it past water at the base of the tower and into a building.
The fact that evaporative cooling is the earliest documented form of climate control highlights its credentials as a natural and efficient method to provide indoor comfort.
A clever ventilation system: Evaporative cooling today
Today we are still using evaporative air conditioning, but the contemporary direct evaporative cooling versions use electric motors, fans and pumps that are energy efficient and with clever electronic controls. While today’s systems are much more sophisticated, they still operate on their ancient principles of natural (rather than artificial) refrigeration and cooling efficiency.
In conclusion, to learn more about direct evaporative cooling, visit the dedicated page.
Evaporative cooling units built with fresh air delivery in mind
Early models of direct evaporative air conditioning units were made of metal and tended to corrode. That’s no longer the case. It was the Australian evaporative cooling luminary, Mr. Frank Seeley who first introduced a plastic system in 1972, to overcome issues with unit weight, but also ending problems with corrosion. For example, Seeley International’s Breezair unit uses a UV stabilized structural polymer material which won’t rust or corrode.
This persistent and innovative approach focused on using robust materials which could withstand the harshest climate on earth to deliver good ventilation and fresh air delivery into commercial and industrial buildings. This put Seeley International on the global map.
Hyper-efficient indirect evaporative cooling: another great ventilation system
One of the main innovations at Seeley is definitely the Climate Wizard hyper efficient indirect evaporative air conditioner!
Climate Wizard is the global leader in delivering hyper-efficient cooling technology that covers an exceptionally large range of flexible configurations in a wide range of commercial and industrial applications.
The patented Climate Wizard indirect evaporative technology uses a heat exchange core that provides hyper-efficient cooling. It generates 100% fresh, cool, outside air, at temperatures that rivals refrigerated systems, with up to 80% lower energy costs(8)
The temperature of the cold air produced by Climate Wizard can be similar to that produced by refrigerated systems with no added moisture to the air(9).
Climate Wizard is a world first and the innovation revolution of the century in cooling technology, using a new way of cooling to deliver unparalleled cooling levels at a fraction of the cost of refrigerated air conditioning. This proven technology has now been successfully adopted across the world.
Learn more about Climate Wizard Indirect evaporative cooling here.
Evaporative technology continues to be a natural choice for ventilation and air quality
History has seen an impressive array of developments in air conditioning, many of them originating in Australia, and at Seeley International. Seeley’s determination is to continue leading the world in healthy, sustainable, fresh air delivery and efficient cooling and to service the growing global demand for evaporative cooling as the exemplary technology in these areas.
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.
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.