There are many reasons to have industrial ventilation and commercial air ducts cleaned on a regular basis. These reasons include increasing HVAC efficiency, maintaining the ventilation equipment, avoiding contamination of the manufacturing process, and avoiding accumulation of combustible dust. Yet one important reason is often overlooked: indoor air quality.
It is often assumed that being indoors is a safe and healthy place for people who have health issues, but this actually puts them more at risk. Why?
The air movement inside is much lower compared to the air movement outside. This leaves a small percentage of fresh air being circulated through a facility. There are also many sources that can contribute to indoor air pollution such as printers and copiers, insulation, carpet, furniture made from pressed wood, cleaning chemicals, and dust from building occupants. In an industrial facility, pollution sources would also come from the machinery and the dust or debris created during the manufacturing process. Because the pollution is often held inside, it is constantly blown around through the facility’s HVAC system. This allows the ducts to become a breeding ground for dangerous pollutants mites, mold, bacteria and viruses. These toxins will grow inside of a dirty ductwork and can cause devastating harm to those with weakened immune systems.
Mites
Dust mites are prevalent in dirty ductwork, where they feed off of organic matter within dust. There can be between 100 and 500 dust mites living in just one gram of dust (the same weight as a standard paperclip). These tiny dust mites cause severe allergic reactions in some people, caused by the excrement and dried shells of the creatures being blown through the ventilation system.
The best way to eliminate dust mite colonies in your ventilation system is to keep it clean, free of dust, and dry. If these are not taken care of the ventilation system will fill with these illness causing mites.
Mold & Mildew
Many people have mold in their HVAC system without even realizing it. Mold and mildew thrive in dark, humid, dirty areas, and dusty and inefficient ventilation is a perfect spot for them to grow. Mold and Mildew produce spores to reproduce, and these spores become airborne and are passed throughout the building’s ventilation system. Inhaling these spores can cause a range of health issues including asthma, allergic illness, respiratory infection, and in severe cases toxic poisoning. Reactions to these mold spores can be headaches, coughing, and Irritation of the eyes or throat.
Making sure air duct ventilation is dry and clean is the best way to prevent mold in air ducts. If the HVAC system has become dirty and is running inefficiently, or the filters are old and clogged, it will not be able to pull all of the spores out of the air or eliminate moisture from the air ducts.
Bacteria and Viruses
Certain types of bacteria and viruses can travel through the air to spread infections. Damp and dirty spaces allow for accumulation and breeding of many of these bacteria and viruses, and ventilation systems easily spread these disease causing organisms around. Poor or stagnant air circulation can cause the bacteria and viruses living in air ducts to thrive and cause infection more easily.
Making sure ventilation systems are moving clean, filtered air efficiently is the best way to prevent the spread of these diseases, and prevent employees from becoming unnecessarily sick.
Cleaning your facility’s ductwork is the first step in removing airborne contaminants and allergens out of the air they breathe. Regular duct cleaning for commercial and industrial facilities can significantly help reduce the levels of these pollutants and increase indoor air quality.
Air Purification System
An air purifier is an air cleaning device that captures and kills contaminants within the purifier itself. Air purifiers use one or more filtration and air treatment methods to remove pollutants from the air. Air purifiers that use HEPA filtration can filter air particles down to 0.3 microns in size with a 99.97%.
UVC Light Disinfection
UVC Lighting is a disinfection method that uses short-wavelength ultraviolet light to kill or inactivate microorganisms by destroying nucleic acids and disrupting their DNA, leaving them unable to perform vital cellular functions. UVC refers to ultraviolet light with wavelengths between 200 – 280 nanometers (nm). Light in the UVC wavelength can be used for disinfecting duct work, sterilizing surfaces, destroying harmful micro-organisms in food products and in air.
Hughes Environmental is a National Air Duct Cleaner’s Association (NADCA) certified company who has earned their prestigious “Outstanding Safety Award” every year that we’ve been in business.
Our technicians are trained on the most up-to-date industry standards for cleaning commercial HVAC systems, and are equipped to clean from the point the air enters the system all the way to where it exits.
We are also a member of the National Fire Protection Association, the National Air Duct Cleaners’ Association, and the American Society of Safety Engineers. In addition, our technicians have been through OSHA 10- or 30-hour training and have Council-certified Indoor Environmentalists (CIE) and Council-certified Microbial Remediators (CMR) on staff.
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