News
| HVAC efficiency begins in the ducting | 14-09-06 |
Quite a number of our technical partners specialise in installations on office buildings and other commercial premises.
They will be first to tell you how important it is to maintain and operate with clean ducting to ensure occupant safety as well as the general longevity and performance of the product.
Unfortunately for some of our technical partners, they occasionally find some of their clients would choose to go on the cheap and insist on economising on the quality of ducting for their application.
Thankfully, our technical partners are smarter than this. They know a lot about indoor air quality, and even more about overall HVAC Systems and what should be done to maintain quality.
Without quality ducting, an air-conditioning system will become punctured, corroded, or it may even be ill-fitting from the outset. Any of these factors and more can release a wide range of contaminants into working indoor environment. Such contaminants implicated include:
• Any of the vast array of microbial contaminants such as bacteria, fungi, moulds, especially where there are damp areas, stagnant water or condensate pans
• Believe it or not, from building occupants; unthought of contaminants such as carbon dioxide expelled from the lungs, the body odours of employees, perfumes and colognes, or tobacco smoke (although this is becoming less common due to new anti-smoking laws).
• From building materials, problematic contaminants such as gases, dust, formaldehyde, fibreglass and even asbestos.
• Dust mites from carpet fabric and foam chair cushions.
• Ozone depleting substances from photocopiers, any cleaners, various motors and other office equipment.
• The toxic substances from the vast array of cleaning solutions, pesticide treatments and other solvents such as glue that is found in commercial environments.
One of the more common reasons commercial and office ducting is failing is because it is extremely outdated and is reliant on duct linings from the old world. Decades ago, fibreglass linings were very common in ducting products so the important thing now is to upgrade to new technology guaranteed to last because it is made from high-performance plastics or metals and that really are betting geared to do this job.
In some of these old installations, the ducting may have acquired layers of contaminant over decades and have since been broken down by it. The linings may have also become damp, thus providing ideal conditions for the growth of fungi.
If the premises have encountered a fire, smoke and soot will definitely be evident in its ducting lining.
Once the lining has been broken down, it is only a matter of course for the fibreglass to be exposed to common airflow and the degradation of the fibres causes them to be airborne.
The important message is: if a retrofit is being made, upgraded to a modern product suited to the task. If it is a new premises being constructed, don't skimp as the repercussions could be huge.