How Germ Free is the Air in Your Office?
Hand sanitizer, antibacterial soaps, sanitizing wipes and sprays; we’re all fighting the good fight in our office’s environment daily.
Clean Air
Our life is filled with others who share our pens, our staplers, our bathrooms and our world in general. These areas are fraught with common and not so common, germs, microbes and other creepy crawlies. They germs are bound and determined to make it into our bodies and spread the joy. Finding ways to limit contact with germs has come into focus for many of us because we need to reduce sick days, medical fees and the crankiness of infected co-workers. I mean really? Who wants to be working when their head is congested and their throat is sore?
Obviously we can only do our best, be our best, when healthy and comfortable.
We clean our surfaces and hands a ton of times a day to keep from spreading germs and reduce allergens, right? Phones, desktops, counters and door knobs get disinfected when we clean them, so, how do we clean these trouble-making particles and germs from stuffy, shared air? How do we up the chance that an employee’s cough or sneeze remains his alone and doesn’t become the gift that keeps on giving, so to speak? Before you know it, you’ve got a room full of runny noses, red eyes and coughs.
So, what if I told you about something called an Air Handler that could help? I promise, it’s not like snipe hunting. This, unlike snipes, really does exist and they’re much easier to find.
The Mighty, Mighty Air Handler
In an Air Conditioning unit, we have the small but important “air handler” which , as the name implies, handles the air. Through this mechanism, air gets filtered and circulated. Dust and other small particles get filtered from the air, allowing us to breath a lot easier and help reduce the musty smell in the winter, pollen and dust in the spring to summer seasons. We all love flowers and trees but not the runny noses or wheezing they can bring with them. Even an allergic nose or lung can become a secondary infection.
The air handler draws the air in, filters it, then either passes it along or, in a heating system, it may pass over a heating coil and then be distributed into the building. The motionless air is now moving, the atmosphere of the building is immediately fresher and cleaner. The smell of Grandma’s attic and moth balls may bring back fond memories but we don’t want it in our office. Filtering it through this air handler removes most of these smells. The recirculated air is moving, allowing it to be brought back up and cleaned yet again.
A Makeup Air Unit is a large air handler used in commercial spaces. It draws in new air from the outside with no recirculation of the inside air. This virtually eliminates the musty, stale smell of stagnant air. Any pollen, soot or other debris pulled in is filtered well leaving only new, clean air improving the indoor air quality completely. Fresh air, filtration, as well as the air conditioning or heat, combine to keep everyone healthier and comfortable.
The installation of Makeup Air Units in your business or building, will distribute clean air cutting down sick time from office “epidemics”, as well as simply make the character and climate more pleasant for all. Let’s face it, we save more money and time preventing issues than fixing a problem requires of us.
Happy breathing!