Most essential thing for human survival is fresh air. Indoors, fresh air can be achieved through proper ventilation system. Good ventilation can help to mitigate health risks while protecting us along with our home/workplace by following proper Ventilation Survey Procedure.
But, how should we know if we are having a proper ventilation system at our home/workplace?
Ventilation survey procedure can be said as an organized process of acquiring data that quantify the distributing of airflow, pressure and air quality throughout the main flow paths of a ventilation system.
In simple terms, this procedure involves measurement of barometric pressure, temperature, humidity and air quality parameters which may lower the efficiency of ventilation system.
Why to carry out ventilation survey?
Good ventilation brings in considerate amount of fresh air and removes indoor pollutants. Living in home or working in places having poor ventilation leads to various health risks like sick building syndrome, allergies, fever, irritation in eye/throat/nose, etc.
A ventilation survey will help us find out some of the following;
Current status of ventilation system
Direction and velocity of air
Extent of air leakages if any
Rates of indoor pollutants and remedies taken to lower or eliminate them.
In this step, they would gather information relating to number of windows and doors, location of windows and exhaust fan, size of windows, presence of HVAC system, questions related to illness/allergy occupant is suffering from, etc.
2) Selection of location and duration for measurement of parameters
Once information is collected, it would be analysed to finalise location along main flow paths of ventilation system and duration of measurement of parameters like pressure, temperature, humidity and air quality.
3) Measurement of parameters
This step involves measurement of pressure, measurement of air exchange and airflow, intake and exhaust survey, indoor air quality survey.
Measurement of pressure, air exchange and airflow: Pressure, air exchange and airflow rates helps maintain proper ventilation. An imbalance in ventilation will lead to condensation, corrosion, difficulty in controlling temperature and humidity, etc.
Pressure, air exchange and airflow rate can be measured using instruments like Anemometer, Smoke tube, Pilot-static tube.
Indoor air quality survey:– Here, Indoor air quality testing can be done for Pollutants CO2, NOX, SO2, Particulate matter (PM 2.5 and PM 10), Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) etc. will be focused and measured using instruments like Dusttrak, NOX analyser, VOC meter, etc.
Equipment survey:- In equipment survey, equipments involved in maintaining balance in ventilation are checked for their efficiency and problems found in the functioning of equipments will be reported. The equipments involved in maintaining balance ventilation are HVAC, primary and auxiliary fans, etc.
After collection of data and measurement of parameters, these would be analysed to understand about the efficiency of ventilation system and accordingly the results will be reported including the recommendations and suggestions needed to be implemented to have a proper functioning ventilation system.
Once we know how our ventilation system is working, we can start working on it to improve its efficiency to have a better functioning ventilation system.
Having proper ventilation is crucial and to eliminate possible health risks it is always better to have a highly efficient ventilation system.
A better working ventilation system will eliminate the health risks before they even can pose threat to you!
Perfect Pollucon Services offers services in Environmental monitoring for Ambient & Indoor air quality monitoring.
