During the pandemic COVID has raised the profile of the quality of the air we breathe in our buildings. As Winter approaches the combination of the weather cooling, so we are spending more time indoors, and a drive for employees to return to the workplace means that extra purification is in now in demand. Employers are increasingly looking to air purification in addition to effective ventilation to help ensure good indoor air quality (IAQ) and a healthier environment. Leading ventilation specialist Vent-Axia has therefore launched its PureAir Room air purifier to remove harmful particles, neutralise bad smells and remove pollen and other allergens.
“Since COVID began, everybody has become more aware of the importance of good indoor air quality and how it affects inhabitants. In response there has been a growing demand for added purification”, explains Tom Wodcke, Product Manager at Vent-Axia. “To improve IAQ there are three main actions: Reduce the number of pollutants introduced; Dilute the pollutants by ensuring there is adequate ventilation introducing fresh clean air inside; Purify by adding a purifier to remove the remaining pollutants. The Vent-Axia PureAir Room is the ideal solution to achieve this and is now available via electrical wholesalers for commercial customers.”
Indoor air pollution impacts lung health and causes a range of health issues ranging from cardiac disease to dementia. While the importance of good IAQ is hitting the headlines in relation to COVID, it’s clear that the same principles to reduce airborne COVID transmission can and should be used going forward to reduce indoor air pollution. Patrick Vallance, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, commissioned The Royal Academy of Engineering to review how we design, manage, and operate buildings and how we can make infrastructure more resilient to infection both now and going forward. The initial report, ‘Infection Resilient Environments: Buildings that keep us healthy and safe’, highlights the importance of achieving good IAQ as well as reducing transmission of COVID and other infectious diseases meaning many of the suggested changes have relevance well beyond COVID-19.
The Vent-Axia PureAir Room features an air quality display that shows the levels of PM2.5 from the integral air quality sensor with a traffic light system telling the user if the air is good, bad or needs improving. The PureAir Room has a Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) of 260m3 and is suitable for any habitable room. Lightweight and portable, it can easily be moved to where it’s needed and only uses as much energy as a light bulb.
The Vent-Axia PureAir Room features an advanced 6-stage filtration system to purify the air, tackling unpleasant and unhealthy airborne matter. These filtration stages include: 1. Washable Pre-Filter that captures the coarse particles from the air flowing through it protecting the vital HEPA Filter. 2. HEPA Filter removes 99.9% of particles in the air including diesel, pet allergens, pollen, viruses, mould and bacteria by trapping them inside the filter material. 3. Activated Carbon Filter removes VOCs, odours and gaseous pollutants from the air trapping the gas molecules in the charcoal. 4. A Cold Catalyst Filter speeds up the decomposition of organic compounds breaking them down to harmless molecules, such as H2O and CO2. 5. Ultraviolet Light is used as a disinfection method helping keep the internal workings of the unit clean by inactivating bacteria and viruses. 6. Ionizer is the last stage of the filtration process, generating negatively charged ions which adhere to small particles so they attract other particles creating larger clusters than can be absorbed from the filter at the start of the cycle.
