Returning to the office post-lockdown COVID world: Improving air quality in your office building
As we head closer to reaching those all-important vaccination targets in both Victoria and New South Wales, it’s time for businesses to begin the preparation necessary to return to your office!
Part of that preparation means reducing the airborne risk of COVID-19 so our shared air spaces, including offices and classrooms, are safe for our return and help prevent the spread of the virus.
In order to make sure that our office spaces are set for our return, it’s important to have a few things checked.
Re-starting your HVAC system in your workplace
Re-starting your HVAC system after a temporary shut down can carry risks to the health and safety of the people in your office space if they have not been maintained and inspected in accordance to relevant regulations and standards prior to restarting.
The best bet? Get in contact with MPE Group today for our experienced team to examine your system.
Optimising your ventilation to prevent COVID transmission
There is a new measure in town: Air Changes per Hour (ACH), which measures the air volume added to or removed from a space in one hour, divided by the volume of the space.
Current advice to reduce exposure to aerosolized COVID-19 is between four to six (or even greater than six) ACHs.
So, how exactly can you increase your ACH levels? There’s a few ways:
Ventilation can be provided by opening windows and/or using heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC).
Allow more air circulation in common areas.
Limiting or not using recirculated air and increasing outside air intake.
Create cross ventilation and upgrading or servicing filters of HVAC systems.
How do you upgrade your ventilation system?
There are a few key ways to upgrade your HVAC system
Upgrade filters to a Disposable MERV 13 type. These are the highest grade filters the current systems can handle, and have recently been rolled out to the State Library of Victoria and various Universities.
Increase outside fresh air as per recommendations from Safework by upgrading fresh air ducts to return air inlets.
Installation of UV Duct Irradiation.
What is UV Duct Irradiation?
Uv-duct irradiation are indoor air quality disinfection systems for HVAC installations.
This is the gold standard of air treatment, and not common in conventional air conditioning systems prior to COVID-19. The system consists of UV light tubes installed in the existing air conditioning duct.
UV-DUCTs work by using UVC light to ‘treat’ the air. The light from the UV creates a barrier that prevents viruses, bacteria, moulds and spores from growing and re-circulating within air conditioning systems. To work effectively the return air duct needs to be modified on all the A/C units.
At MPE Group, the Laftech brand we use has been tested to eliminate airborne COVID-19. What’s good about UV duct irradiation is that it doesn’t use any chemicals, meaning there’s no residual effects of long-term contamination.
So there you have it! Returning to the office can be exciting now you’re doing everything you can to prevent virus transmission.