Did you know that worker comfort is essential for warehouse productivity and employee retention? There are many reasons why you need experts to design a ventilation system for your warehouse. Productivity is one of the biggest reasons. Unfortunately, many facility owners and managers don’t realize just how important ventilation is for warehouse production and revenue. Yet, research shows that proper ventilation may be key to optimizing productivity and, by extension, your bottom line.
Why Design a Ventilation System for a Warehouse?
First, why is ventilation so important in a warehouse? Industrial ventilation systems can help improve safety and comfort in the workplace and also help improve storage conditions for warehouse goods.
Industrial Ventilation Systems Help Improve Safety
Warehouse ventilation systems are sorely underestimated as a worker safety tool. Ventilation systems help remove contaminants from indoor air by diluting stale, contaminated air with fresh, outdoor air. Also, a well-designed ventilation system can help reduce humidity levels that cause excess moisture and condensation that can cause slip and fall hazards. Removing excess humidity in your warehouse can also help reduce risks for mold, which can be a health hazard for workers.
Ventilation for Worker Comfort
Another important reason why your warehouse needs ventilation is for worker comfort. Ventilation systems can help control temperature, humidity, and air quality in your facility. Without proper ventilation, your warehouse can quickly become uncomfortable. This is particularly true during very hot or very cold times of the year. Extreme temperatures, high or low humidity levels, and bad air quality can all contribute to making your warehouse an uncomfortable place to be. This may increase employee turnover and reduce overall productivity, which we’ll discuss in more depth in later sections. The bottom line is, employee comfort is often crucial for successful operations.
Protecting Warehouse Goods with Proper Ventilation
Finally, let’s not forget the goods inside your warehouse. Many products can be vulnerable to damage with extremely high or low temperatures. However, even if temperature is unlikely to damage products, moisture from excess humidity might. High humidity levels in your warehouse can cause condensation which can lead to water damage and corrosion. Also, excess moisture in the air can increase the risk for mold and mildew growing on the goods your warehouse stores. Therefore, ventilation systems are also essential for stored items as well as your personnel.
How Does Design for a Ventilation System Affect Productivity?
We have mentioned that a well-designed ventilation system can help improve productivity for your warehouse. You might be wondering how. You see, ventilation systems can actually change working conditions to help encourage better focus, efficiency, and even reduced absenteeism.
Improved Focus and Efficiency
Most would agree that productivity and efficiency is crucial for the bottom line, no matter what industry you’re in. In a warehouse, design for a ventilation system can make a huge difference in productivity and efficiency.
Hot temperatures, high humidity, and poor indoor air quality in your warehouse can all contribute to lower performance for your personnel. If you think about it, it makes sense. When it’s too hot or when you’re uncomfortable, it can be really difficult to focus, move quickly, or stay alert. In surveys, many employees say it’s difficult to concentrate when temperatures are too hot or too cold. Warehouse workers may have a hard time performing their jobs to the best of their ability when facing uncomfortable temperatures, humidity, and air quality. Some may even need more frequent breaks. In essence, uncomfortable conditions could be costing your warehouse a fortune in lost productivity.
However, ventilation systems can help. A well-designed system can help keep temperatures and humidity levels in comfortable ranges and also help improve indoor air quality. Several studies have found that worker comfort is essential for productivity, and an effective ventilation system is an important part of worker comfort.
Reduced Absenteeism
Many things can pollute the air inside your warehouse without proper ventilation. For example, mold and mildew, off gases from some types of stored products, and exhaust fumes from forklifts and other warehouse equipment. These issues can make indoor air quality in your warehouse very poor. Poor indoor air quality can increase the risk for many illnesses that may lead to absenteeism. For instance, poor air quality can lead to colds, allergies, respiratory illnesses, asthma symptoms, headaches, and other physical symptoms in your workforce.
Industrial exhaust systems as part of your warehouse ventilation system can help remove these contaminants. This can help reduce exposure to pollutants that can make your employees sick. In turn, this can have a positive impact not only on productivity, but also absenteeism. After all, it’s hard to do your job if you’re not feeling healthy.
When specialists design a ventilation system that helps keep indoor air clean and healthy, workers are less likely to need short-term sick leave for symptoms from exposure to air contaminants. Some research even found that improving industrial ventilation systems resulted in a 35% decrease in workers taking sick leave.
Absenteeism is a serious concern, as it can reduce productivity, cost your warehouse money (on average about $3,600 a year per employee). Rampant absenteeism can even damage morale when others have to pick up the slack. With proper design, a ventilation system can pay for itself by helping keep your employees well enough to come into work.
Design a Ventilation System: Controlling Temperature, Humidity, and Indoor Air Quality
When it comes to design, a ventilation system’s primary goals are to control temperature, humidity, and air quality. Each of these elements is a little different for different facilities. Therefore, each ventilation system needs to be customized to the facility. For instance, some facilities with high humidity levels may need dehumidifiers. Others may just need fans to help workers feel cooler. Warehouses with large amounts of dust or other contaminants may need sophisticated industrial exhaust systems to help remove polluted air from the indoor environment. By contrast, some facilities may only need basic exhaust fans to get rid of general dust and stale air.
Specialists help design a ventilation system based on your specific needs, which means a site survey to really understand what conditions currently exist as well as objectives the system must address. This is all unique to your warehouse, but there are a few good general guidelines to keep in mind as you consider your goals for warehouse ventilation. First, while OSHA doesn’t have any specific regulations about temperatures and humidity, the agency does recommend keeping workplace temperatures between 68°F and 76°F. They also recommend keeping humidity levels between 20% and 60%. Also, in many cases the standard air exchange rate required by building codes may not be sufficient to help keep indoor air quality healthy in your warehouse. Therefore, you may need to sit down with a ventilation expert to discuss what type of contaminants are in your facility and what your air quality goals are as well.
Innovative Industrial Ventilation Systems from Eldridge – Creating Successful Environments
At Eldridge, we help create successful environments for people, products, and processes with high quality ventilation system design and equipment. Since 1946, we’ve been providing industrial facilities with practical, economical solutions for ventilation. Get in touch today to request a quote for your design or equipment needs!