If you’re a business owner, you may be concerned about indoor air quality and prioritizing the health of your employees and clients. To help you monitor and maintain adequate air quality, we’ve compiled the following list of tools the CDC recommends to improve ventilation.
You may also find this presentation from Frederick Dela Cruz helpful. Frederick, a senior solutions advisor for Trane Technologies, recently hosted a webinar for Tampa Electric customers on the subject of Indoor Environmental Quality.
(If you’d like to be notified of future webinars featuring smart solutions for businesses, please email comconreq@tecoenergy.com)
For optimal indoor air quality, the CDC recommends you:
- Open outdoor air dampers beyond minimum settings to reduce or eliminate HVAC air recirculation.
- Rebalance or adjust HVAC systems to increase total airflow to occupied spaces when possible.
- Ensure ventilation systems operate properly and provide acceptable indoor air quality for the current occupancy level for each space.
- Increase air filtration to as high as possible without significantly reducing design airflow. Increased filtration efficiency is especially helpful when enhanced outdoor air delivery options are limited.
- Ensure restroom exhaust fans are functional and operating at full capacity when the building is occupied.
- Inspect and maintain exhaust ventilation systems in areas such as kitchens, cooking areas, etc. Operate these systems any time these spaces are occupied. Operating them even when the specific space is not occupied will increase overall ventilation within the occupied building.
- Improve central air filtration to the MERV-1311 or the highest compatible with the filter rack, and seal edges of the filter12 to limit bypass.
These ventilation tools can help reduce the concentration of virus particles in the air, but they will not eliminate the risk entirely. To learn more about what you can do to improve ventilation at your business, visit Ventilation in Buildings | CDC.
