Using AC to help reduce the spread of COVID19

The pandemic coronavirus infectious disease (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has affected our day to day life in many ways, and the effect will change how we consume, how we learn, how we socialise, how we work and communicate for the foreseeable future. Whilst it is too early to assess the damage caused, one thing that is certain is that responsible companies will have to include new procedures and use technology to aid in the prevention of spreading of this virus and other future viruses.

One consequence of the Covid-19 outbreak is we now need to think about new ways of installing and using Air Conditioning (AC) systems, as well as the ways we will integrate them in the Home or Building Control System. Regarding AC systems, over the last few years we have seen a strong focus on the improvement of the energy efficiency of the equipment and the energy savings achieved thanks to the increased use of insulating materials and the installation of more intelligent control systems. Today, with Covid-19 the most mentioned and important message is the need for “Clean Air” and the importance of ventilation.

Therefore, today we need to focus more on ventilation. In consequence we maybe need to spend more time and money on this element of air conditioning, which may perhaps lose some of air-conditioner’s efficiency or some of the energy savings that AC units have started to deliver over the last few years. This consequence is because our modern AC installations are not really designed to provide the required higher air flows to give good ventilation with the same time/ cost profile as required for energy saving. 

Tomorrow, efficiency and energy savings will come again, as the air-conditioning technology adapts to focus more on delivering these new higher ventilations and air quality, so be ready for today’s adversities but start to prepare yourselves for the new challenges we are facing.

In this white paper, published by HMS Intesis, we would like to share with you some best practices or improvements we can all do in our systems integrations to help prevent Covid-19. The AC units and ventilation systems are difficult to change or improve without new equipment, but one of the advantages of modern home & building control systems is that we can improve the system, by programming new features without having to change any physical device, or in the scenario of an office that does not yet have a control system able to do this, it is cheaper and faster to install a control solution that can offer this level of adaptability, rather than change the Air Conditioning units.

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