As people experience challenges related to COVID-19, we have learned a lot about indoor air quality and its renewed importance in the spaces we inhabit. We have been teaching our customers for years the basics and importance of good indoor air quality. This includes making sure you have adequate outside air, proper filtration, and monitoring VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) with specialized equipment we own.
The latest recommendations from the CDC are interesting and backed up by science and industry experts trying to combat the spread and efficacy of the virus. One of the challenges we have in the South is bringing in more outside air than the HVAC systems were originally designed to accommodate. This recommended change can be very expensive and challenging when you consider humidity and all the practical factors involved with this type of retrofit. So, how should an owner combat the virus or any other airborne disease?
We recommend having a service professional who specializes in preventative and predictive maintenance advise you on options that can make the process less costly if done right. Knee jerking to all the recommendations is premature until you know more about the status of your systems and get more empirical data on how they are performing. In many cases, it would be almost impossible to implement all these guidelines without major expenditure. Also, while you may improve one area of concern, you may also experience significant temperature and humidity discomfort because of those changes.
We know the CDC has tried to quickly figure out ways to help the nation with the virus concerns. We also look to ASHRAE (American Society Heating Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers) and it’s 125-year engineering history as one of the leading voices related to indoor air quality. We have been following their guidelines for safe and effective air quality since we started our service company many years ago. Our franchise partner, Linc Service, has always helped us stay informed of all the national trends and issues related to indoor air quality challenges. Their mission is to keep us on the forefront of any environmental challenges related to our maintenance practices.
We engaged additional partners around the country before COVID-19 to help us provide accurate temperature, humidity, and outside air readings/trends in our customer’s buildings. We can provide this data quickly to enable you to know the significance of any issues related to indoor air issues at a very low cost. This is objective data and analysis provided by our Linc Service partner, BuildingAdvice, that is a leader in this field.
We have also been very proactive in Middle Georgia during the crisis providing specialized equipment to attack the spread of germs in facilities where large groups of people are required to work or learn. Additionally, this technology can reduce outside air requirements and help your filtration do a better job of reducing particulates in the air. Most of this technology has been around for 10 – 20 years, ironically. But the pandemic has put it front and center as it related to safety in buildings moving forward. We have detailed webinars to overview remotely and can arrange a meeting to view these options.
Please call Calvin Hays or Bob King at 478-475-4118 to learn more about our maintenance services and its effect on your indoor air quality. In addition, we can tell you about our services to analyze your building and make recommendation for a safer and healthier building or working space.
– Cal Hays, President