wellSPACE Live – Envirotech Ltd

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)

The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the demand for ways of measuring the effectiveness of the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). There is ever more increasing pressure across commercial real estate – be it landlords, tenant occupiers, universities or public buildings – to demonstrate suitable environments that include COVID-19 preventative measures, incorporating air ventilation & purification strategies. Coupled with the ongoing research and court cases demonstrating a direct link between toxic air and early death, there is a growing demand for ongoing live data of air quality in cities, which is now filtering down to the actual workplace environments themselves.

The green agenda is now a high priority for many countries, governments and commercial business and is having a direct impact on asset managers investment and management strategies across their building portfolios. This has brought with it a focus on wellness and air quality of working environments in such buildings.

Guidance has been provided by UK HSE – Health & Safety Executive on their website, while industry bodies such as CIBSE and BESA have advised on ventilation and the effective following of government guidelines.

https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/equipment-and-machinery/air-conditioning-and-ventilation/index.htm

The Envirotech Group is utilising its considerable experience to help our clients to address this, and to make effective decisions to rectify issues. It is clear that being able to continuously measure and monitor the environmental conditions within the building in relation to acceptable industry levels is paramount.

EnvirotechwellSPACE, as an early adopter of IoT (Internet of Things) products, has worked in partnership with several companies to roll out our affordable, flexible, and portable environmental quality measurement and analytic tools developed with cutting edge technologies.

Our Solution

Phase 1 – Survey, Deploy and Measure the indoor conditions.

We have identified six core areas to be measured and with our plug and play simPRO powered solution, which provides credible, accredited cost-effective real-time readings of your space.

Sensor	Brief Description	Impact on health & wellbeing
TVOC	Total Volatile Organic Compounds – Organic particles in the air	VOCs are thought to be responsible for a range of health problems from headaches and eye irritation to serious long-term illness such as cancer.
PM2.5	Inorganic particles in the air – i.e. exhaust fumes	Particulate matter can cause irritation to the nose and throat. For people with asthma and other lung conditions, it can lead to hospital admissions. PM also has an adverse effect on people with heart conditions and stroke sufferers. It has also been linked to anxiety and hypertension.
CO2	Carbon Dioxide – stale air	Leads to asphyxiation at extremely high levels. At low levels reduces concentration, causes drowsiness, headaches.
CO	Carbon Monoxide – the silent killer	Lethal at high levels. At lower levels causes headaches, dizziness, nausea.
Temperature	Self-explanatory
Humidity	Low humidity has shown a direct increase in the transmissibility of COVID-19 (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200820102503.htm)	Exacerbates the presence of mould; can cause respiratory problems and infections.

Our simPRO powered sensor specification operates to the globally accepted standards – WELL Certified and RESET standards. These can be installed within hours and provide live monitoring within 24 hours.

Equipment

Micro Gateway Unit

The gateways are mains powered and include a sim card and data plan in the monthly fee Lora WAN RF coverage to Nodes/ Sensors.

Mains Sensor with up to six Individual Sensors / Channels

Indoors environmental monitoring. It measures sound pressure level, temperature, humidity, illuminance, PM2.5, CO, CO2, and TVOC concentrations. Sensors measuring CO and CO2 concentrations are pre-calibrated at the production stage.

Phase 2 Live Dashboard

Our live Dashboard provides real time summary of what is happening within the client’s space around the clock.

Phase 3 – Managed Support Services

“Data is pointless with knowledge-based review”.
Client access will be provided by our service desk and on a monthly basis we will provide a simple overview report of the data accumulated from the site, with a list of actions to improve the indoor conditions.

Phase 4 – Technical Review

We can provide additional technical consultancy support to work with you to further investigate and provide detailed technical solutions to return readings highlighting specific issues on site. This could be the recommendation of the installation of air purification, UV sterilisation equipment, or a plan to upgrade the existing plant and equipment to handle additional air volumes.

In the first instance please contact Jeff Smith to discuss your building requirements.
Jeff Smith – MBA, MRICS, MIWFM, MSCSI, MEI
Partner – Director of Digital Solutions
jeff.smith@envirotechfm.com

Glossary

PPM: Parts per million – a measure used to indicate the level of a pollutant in the air.
Particulate matter: Solid and liquid matter in the air (indoors and outside) that may be very small but have a potentially damaging effect on the human body.
Humidity: The amount of water vapour present in the air (indoors or outside).
HVAC: Heating, ventilation, and Air Conditioning within a building.
Ventilation: Replaces stale indoor air with outdoor air. Air conditioning: Modifies the humidity and temperature of air inside a building to create a comfortable environment.

We would like to accredit the work being undertaken by CIBSE – Chartered Institute of Building Service Engineers and BESA – Building Engineering Services Association on ventilation and indoor air quality as part of the Covid-19 response.

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