How clean is the air that you breathe?
We spend more than 90% of our time indoors and unless we take steps to ventilate our homes and workplaces correctly, the quality of the air we breathe can be 50 x more polluted than outdoor air, with all the associated health risks.
Why is that? We only need to contemplate the number of cleaning products, hair sprays, paints, air fresheners and new furniture and carpets that we bring into our home to realise what we’re feeding our indoor air quality with. The presence of condensation and mould can also worsen skin allergies and respiratory conditions. Today’s new builds tend to be extremely airtight, which has its benefits in terms of heating bills, but doesn’t have the benefits of fresh air coming into the home.
To keep our homes healthy and avoid symptoms like dizziness, watery eyes, fatigue, headaches and coughing which can be caused by poor air quality, we need to take action. Ideally, an airtight home should be matched with a mechanical ventilation system which removes moist and stale air Although opening your windows regularly helps to ensure air movement, the moment those windows are closed, the air quality deteriorates very quickly, particularly if you are cooking, taking a shower or spraying aerosols.
“A continuous mechanical extract system from Vortice can cost less than £5 a year to run and is well worth the investment. Another option, particularly useful for new build properties is a mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery. That does exactly what it says on the tin, it introduces fresh air into the property whilst recovering heat from the stale air that it is extracting and re-uses that heat by passing the fresh air over a heat exchanger.“
A continuous mechanical extract system from Vortice can cost less than £5 a year to run and is well worth the investment. Another option, particularly useful for new build properties is a mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery. That does exactly what it says on the tin, it introduces fresh air into the property whilst recovering heat from the stale air that it is extracting and re-uses that heat by passing the fresh air over a heat exchanger.
Vortice knows only too well the importance of this and has made it its mission over the years to be a voice within the industry ensuring customers get a correct and compliant ventilation system by offering a complete design, aftersales and training service.
The DEFRA consultation also discusses how occupant behaviour can affect the ventilation requirements of a home. Vortice has listened to housebuilders and specifiers and works hard to provide a range of ventilation solutions for many different applications to improve indoor air quality in airtight dwellings.
“Vortice welcomes this new Government strategy as this will underscore what we have been talking about for years. It is important for us as a ventilation manufacturer always to offer a compliant solution suitable for the end application and to provide education to the installer and end user. We find lack of education is the key issue here so it is great to see this consultation highlighting the risks of bad ventilation and what damage this can have on the occupant’s health.“
Vortice has also promoted good practice during Green Great Britain Week, which began on 15 October 2018 and was designed to engage the public in the debate on air quality alongside climate change and highlight the economic opportunities it offers for the UK.
With thanks to www.defra.gov.uk and www.myhealthmyhome.
