Importance of UV-C in HVAC Industry

Importance of UV-C in HVAC Industry
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Importance of UV-C in HVAC Industry
Introduction
There are millions of commercial buildings currently existing in different regions of the world. However, those working within such buildings are subject to be victims of allergies, sick building syndrome alongside various building-related illnesses due to the existing poor quality of indoor air. The Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) within the commercial building’s HVAC system provides one of the efficient ways of ensuring improvement in the air quality that reduces the level of health risks that the occupants are exposed to. However, there are various factors of consideration in the quest to consider the HVAC design of a building. Some of these factors entail the ultimate use of the facility, as well as the overall budget. The overall analysis should consider life cycle costs and the potential influence of the design solutions on the occupants in the future (An et al., 2018).
In this study, commercial building is applicable in referring to the buildings that are more than 1,000 square feet that basically provide half of their space for office work. A good percentage of people spend a significant amount of their time within these buildings with various systems at work such as ventilation, heating, and cooling systems. Such systems make the indoor air quality of prime importance within these environments. The nature of the indoor air quality always impacts the level of productivity and absenteeism, and of course, insurance premiums. There are both negative and positive impacts of UVGI. The reduced quality of the outside air may lead to the accumulation of contaminants indoors, which ultimately contributes to health effects such as building-related illness (BRI) as well as sick building syndrome (SBS). Some of the reasons behind poor air quality include indoor pollution as well as poor design and maintenance of the ventilation system, this makes it important the aspect of improving indoor air quality within commercial buildings that would contribute towards higher levels of productivity within the workforce. In this case, the use of UVGI technology is applicable to improve the quality of the indoor air (Chao-Yun et al., 2017).
Light is considered a crucial part of the electromagnetic spectrum capable of producing radiant energy. The Ultraviolet light spectrum ranges from short to longer wavelengths. In this case, it is important to note that UV light has wavelengths of approximately 350 nanometers and is basically categorized under invisible light. The existence of holes within the ozone layer increases cancer risk due to the presence of additional ultraviolet radiation within the troposphere. The UV has an ionizing effect that proves to be very harmful to body cells. In this case, when dealing with construction activities, there should be proper storage of building materials to avoid exposure to UV radiation (Rodgers & Saputa, 2017).
The level of contamination in HVAC units is widespread and, as discussed above, often leads to building-related diseases such as bacterial or viral infections, asthma, and hypersensitivity pneumonitis. However, only certain UV lights are applicable in t...