Ventilation in Workplaces
How To İmprove Ventilation?
Practical ways to improve ventilation include:
- Increasing natural ventilation by opening doors, windows, and vents.
- Ensuring mechanical systems, including air conditioning systems, are designed with clean air intake and kept open to prevent air from becoming stagnant.
- You may need a combination of natural and mechanical ventilation.
How To İmprove Natural Ventilation?
You can improve natural ventilation by partially or fully opening windows, vents, and doors. However, do not open fire doors.
You should be able to open any window and keep ventilation grilles or vents that allow clean air to enter open. If any windows are closed, they should be reopened. If they cannot be opened, ventilation in that area will be less effective.
Ventilation Chambers
If ventilation is poor, you can temporarily improve it as a short-term measure while waiting for longer-term changes. Opening all doors and windows as fully as possible maximizes ventilation in a room.
If it is too cold for people in the room, you can do this when they leave for a break. Even 10 minutes per hour can help increase the amount of fresh air, depending on the size of the room.
How To İmprove Mechanical Ventilation?
Mechanical ventilation brings fresh air into a building from outside using ducts and fans. It has the advantage of continuously providing clean air when properly functioning. However, it can be more costly, requires energy to operate, and needs regular maintenance.
Instead of assuming that outdoor air is clean, it’s important to ensure that clean outdoor air is actually being provided. If you expect the incoming air to be heavily polluted with particles like traffic emissions or smoke, it should be filtered.
You should speak to the people who manage the day-to-day operations of the mechanical ventilation systems of your workplace to
- understand how they work
- they provide fresh air to an area and how much
- ensure that they are stored in accordance with the manufacturers’ instructions
- You may need a ventilation engineer to check whether your system provides adequate ventilation.
Use Of Recirculation Air
The recirculated air must be sufficiently filtered to remove particles and fresh air must be added to it before it is reintroduced into the workplace.
HSE’s Approved Code of Practice states, “In mechanical ventilation systems, including air conditioning systems, circulation air must be adequately filtered to remove contaminants. To prevent the air from becoming unhealthy, some fresh air must be added before recirculating purified air. Therefore, systems should be designed with clean air inlets that need to be kept open.””
If Your Ventilation İs Still Poor
If your ventilation is still inadequate, for example, if CO2 readings are above recommended levels or if the room remains stuffy, consider the following:
– Changing how the workspace is used, such as limiting the time people spend there or restricting the number of people using it simultaneously.
– Installing a mechanical ventilation system (upon the advice of a ventilation engineer), if there is currently no mechanical ventilation or if the existing system does not provide fresh or purified air.
