Did you know that employers have a legal obligation to ensure there’s an adequate supply of fresh air in enclosed areas of the workplace? And if so, did you know that was the case before the coronavirus pandemic, not a piece of new legislation?
To be compliant, you should be maximising the fresh air in your workplace. This can be done through:
- natural ventilation which relies on passive air flow through windows, doors and air vents that can be fully or partially opened
- mechanical ventilation using fans and ducts to bring in fresh air from outside
- a combination of natural and mechanical ventilation, for example where mechanical ventilation relies on natural ventilation to maximise fresh air
Why ventilation is especially important now
With regards to Covid-19, the right level of ventilation will reduce how much of the virus is in the air.
It will also help reduce the risk from aerosol transmission (what happens when someone breathes in small particles after a person with the virus has been in the same enclosed area). The risk of this is greater in areas that are poorly ventilated.
Assessing and improving ventilation in your workplace
Our experience with office environments and the highly exacting requirements of data centres (where cooling is critical) means we are particularly well placed to assess, design, spec and install ventilation systems that will deliver against the demands of the post-Covid office.
In the first instance, we can help you appraise the current standard of your ventilation.
We can highlight areas where improvement is required to achieve or maintain legal compliance, and other areas where it could deliver additional benefits to employee wellbeing or reduce running costs.
We can then recommend, specify, and install or configure the necessary solutions.
But note that our recommendations may not all be technical ones. That’s because Procol’s approach is to consider your workplace in an objective and holistic way.
While we will bring our experience of ventilation and air-conditioning systems to bear, our expertise in office design and space planning plays a key role too.
Some solutions to ventilation challenges and compliance could therefore simply involve changes to the layout, use, or occupancy levels of an area of your workplace.
(Yes, we’re about fresh thinking as well as fresh air!)