Periodical ventilation maintenance for efficient IAQ

Advent of smart cities in India and initiatives like Make in India will certainly create wide opportunities for both mechanical and natural ventilation systems.

Discussing the essential aspects of having ventilation unit in an industrial HVAC system, Hina Gupta, Operations, MG Cooling Solutions explains the importance of having energy efficient ventilation system installed in their premises so as to enjoy additional thermal comfort indoor.

Demand for HVAC ventilation system in India
Ever since India has been into the clutches of concerns like air pollution and global warming, ventilation systems has become our country an integral part of our country. Be it stubble burning in Northern India or industrialisation across India, we need ventilation systems to improve the indoor air quality. With the expansion of Indian manufacturing sector, the PMI (Purchasing Manager Index) has been on a rising spree till date. Increased manufacturing will further expand the requirement of ventilation systems, as commodities need to be manufactured in an environment which is smoke free, dust free and dirt free. Sometimes, the manufacturing causes smoke and fumes to build up inside the premises, which again creates a huge room for ventilation systems. Citing GDP growth, advent of smart cities in India and government push on campaigns like ‘Make in India’ will certainly create a huge requirement for ventilation system in India.

Foreseen growth challenges
I believe the challenge is to persuade people on energy efficient ventilation system as it has a cost impact for the buyer. Secondly, in India there are no stringent norms and standards in place as of now which is again a challenge. In addition to that, we need a strong push to drive education on the necessity of ventilation system in India. Like we have mandated high energy consuming industries to have a mandatory Energy Audit to save energy and cut short on our current account bill. Similarly, a drive from government is very much required with the current industry growth. We have often seen huge dark clouds of smoke coming out of industries big chimneys which is not right. There should be a proper ventilation system for the people who are working in the industries as well as smoke treatment system should be in place before the same is discharged outside. We further need to develop a mindset to know about the importance of ventilation systems in our houses or offices. Because of space constraint now-a-days, natural ventilation becomes a little tricky, hence, mechanical ventilation can fulfill this gap provided we all develop a mindset of ventilation around us in addition to thermal comfort.

Maintaining efficiency in an HVAC ventilation unit
Maintenance activity must be held periodically and should not be shouldn’t be ignored or missed under any circumstances for better efficiency. Apart from being regular, one must check the filters of ventilation system for any kind of blockage. Also, HEPA filters which are used in most of the ventilation system must be checked for any kind of the damage in the filters as well. Manual cleaning can also be assisted by robotic cleaning of the ducts carrying return air. Facility staff must be well trained by the Ventilation system provider to maintain the efficiency of the system. Since ventilation ensures high purity of indoor air, most of the particulate matter gets entrapped in their filter and blocked their efficiency to filter the air. Hence, this chocking must be prevented by highly trained facility professionals as this may lead to inefficiency. In addition to that, bad maintenance would cost more as inefficient chocked filters will consume more electricity.

Smart factories leveraging HVAC industry
Smart factories and smart buildings are definitely the next thing to look for. They are backed by highly energy efficient ventilation system using less energy than the traditional factories. Smart factories have proper mechanism to treat polluted air at the source so that it does not harm environment. Since smart factories are coming at an age when industrilisation is at such huge level, architects and engineers of smart factories are aware of the fact that the design of smart factories must have ventilation systems-both active and passive. Active can be achieved through mechanical ventilation and passive can be achieved through building design. Smart factories also ensure that there is a continuous inflow of clean and pure air for the employees and workers and a parallel mechanism to exhaust the stale air, odor etc. They have CO2 sensors which send an alarm when CO2 concentration gets build up which in turn activates the ventilation system to provide fresh air supply.