With winter comes cold temperatures and other concerns for many industrial facilities across the nation. While it’s a common misconception that industrial ventilation systems only help with cooling hot spaces, they are actually essential for maintaining a successful environment during cold winter weather. These systems help address many concerns unique to winter climates, so it’s key to ensure your system is well-designed and running properly this season. In this article, we’ll explain why industrial ventilation systems are so critical in the winter.
Make sure your building’s ventilation system is prepared for winter. Reach out to our ventilation experts today.
Why Are Industrial Ventilation Systems Important?
First, let’s talk about why industrial ventilation systems are important in general for your facility. These systems play a key role in creating a good environment for workers, materials, products, and processes. They are responsible for removing old, stale, and contaminated air from the indoor environment while bringing in clean, fresh air from outside. Ventilation systems also treat incoming air through filters and other means to ensure common outdoor air pollutants don’t make it inside your building. Pollutants and contaminants can include things like dust, smoke, chemical fumes, heat, and high humidity. The result is healthier, cleaner air inside your building.
How Industrial Ventilation Systems Improve Air Quality During the Winter
Mechanical industrial ventilation systems are incredibly important during the winter because facilities are less likely to open windows and bay doors to bring in fresh air. Since winter often means cold temperatures and snow, you likely don’t want to let these into your building. However, this also means you’re blocking out fresh air.
Your ventilation systems bring in fresh air from outside and remove the old air to improve indoor air quality. Therefore, you rely on your ventilation system more than ever in the winter to provide clean air to your facility.
Specific Concerns Industrial Ventilation Systems Can Assist With
There are many winter conditions that you should be concerned about for your industrial facility. Ventilation systems can address many of these concerns, so you have peace of mind that you have a successful environment for your operations. Some winter conditions that industrial ventilation systems can address include airborne germs, condensation, indoor contaminants, cold temperatures, and humidity levels.
Airborne Germs
One serious concern in the winter is the number of airborne germs in your facility. Winter weather means more and more people are congregating inside, which means more germs are circulating from your workers. There are many airborne germs that can make your employees sick, with some of the biggest winter germ concerns being the flu, cold, and COVID-19 viruses. All these can cause serious symptoms that affect productivity and health, which can increase absenteeism and decrease productivity.
Industrial ventilation systems help fight airborne germs by exhausting old, stale air and bringing in fresh outdoor air. The more often this happens, the fewer number of germ particles are floating in the air, waiting to make people sick. This is one of the major reasons that OSHA recommends increasing ventilation rates during the winter.
Condensation
Cold temperatures during the winter can encourage condensation, including on floors, shelves, and equipment. This creates serious hazards for slipping, products falling off of shelves, and other issues. Combating condensation in the winter requires good industrial ventilation systems.
Ventilation systems can do many things to prevent condensation inside your industrial facility. First, they can help control excess humidity. The increased moisture content in the air can increase the risk for condensation. Additionally, ventilation systems can control temperatures to ensure they aren’t too hot or too cold, both of which can lead to condensation.
Indoor Air Pollutants
There are many indoor air pollutants you may have in your facility, from regular dust to fumes from specialized chemicals you use for your processes. As these contaminants build up in the air, it can be dangerous, even causing lasting health effects for your workers. Ventilation systems help remove these pollutants for better indoor air quality.
Mechanical industrial ventilation control is especially important for removing contaminants during the winter. Since you’re less likely to open windows and doors for natural ventilation, you will rely increasingly on your ventilation system to remove potentially harmful contaminants from the air inside your building.
Temperatures
Industrial ventilation systems are also important for controlling indoor temperatures. Just as they remove hot air and introduce cooler air in the summer, they also help with cold winter conditions. However, it’s key to make sure that the ventilation system is designed for your local climate. For instance, for really cold geographies, you likely need industrial heaters to increase temperatures. These usually come in the form of make-up air heaters, which bring in fresh outdoor air and pre-treat it to the right temperature before releasing it into the air inside. Our team can install them on the roof, ceiling, outdoor walls, and interior walls to suit your heating needs.
Humidity
Ventilation systems also help control humidity levels to keep them in optimal ranges. Maintaining humidity levels is important for reducing condensation that can affect safety, processes, and products. It also can help with worker health, as humidity levels that are too high and too low are both associated with health issues. High humidity can lead to mold growth and harbor other pathogens that can make people sick. However, low humidity dries out the sinuses and can make it harder for workers to fight infections like colds, the flu, and COVID when they do occur. Ventilation can help keep humidity in the right ranges for a successful work environment.
How Eldridge Can Help You Design a Ventilation System Tailored to Your Needs
It’s critical to design a ventilation system that works for your building based not only on the types of contaminants you encounter in the indoor air, but also on local climate conditions. If you face cold, harsh winters, then you need a system that can assist with the unique indoor air quality issues that come with cold winter weather. Our team can design and retrofit ventilation systems to ensure you have a successful environment this winter. This starts with a site visit from a ventilation specialist to really identify the conditions that your ventilation system must address. We then use sophisticated processes and software to create the perfect ventilation system for your needs before installation.
Eldridge – Trusted Industrial Ventilation Solutions since 1946
When you need ventilation solutions, choose our team at Eldridge. We’ve been in business since 1946 and have the experience you need for your facility’s ventilation system. Our experts work with a wide range of industrial facilities, from chemical plants to marine vessels. Our number one goal is to create successful environments for people, products, and processes. Get in touch now to get a quote for your ventilation needs.