Welcome to the latest Insights Survey, in association with Eirdata: how ventilation affects your Indoor Air Quality, makes your workplace healthier and reduces the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

Employee wellness, health and safety

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), also known as Indoor Environmental Quality, is now recognised as an integral contributing factor towards employee wellness, health and safety.

A key factor impacting IAQ is Increased Ventilation and with regard to COVID-19, the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) states that evidence continues to suggest that in poorly ventilated indoor spaces airborne aerosols are a possible transmission route and the main principle of the ventilation advice is to ventilate spaces as much as reasonably possible with outdoor air.

Similarly, guidance from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) clearly encourages building operators to increase their systems outdoor air ventilation to reduce the recirculation air back to the space.

The guidance indicates that this must be done as much as the system and or space conditions will allow. One significant concern is the ability to maintain space conditions.

Bio-burden of infectious particles

It is important to note that research indicates that maintaining the space relative humidity between 40% and 60% decreases the bio-burden of infectious particles in the space and decreases the infectivity of many viruses in the air. 

However, ventilation systems in premises are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Employees and customers have a right to expect that these systems will be designed, installed, operated and maintained to standards that ensure it will adequately and satisfactorily fulfil its desired functions. 

If ventilation systems do not achieve and maintain the required standards there can be consequences, ranging from decreases in productivity and performance levels to increased health risks.

We invite you to take part in the Insights survey, to gather valuable market intelligence and insights to the issues and trends around ventilation and indoor air quality.

The results will be published and shared in the Engineers Journal to help inform and educate Engineers Ireland members across all of the engineering disciplines.

The survey will take less than five minutes and to thank you for your participation, you could win an iPhone 11, courtesy of our partner Eirdata. Please take the survey HERE.