Indoor air quality

Titon has recently supplied the new Fire Safe Air Brick® at the new Timber Works residential development in Cambridge.

The development, a project undertaken by AJ Mechanical Services Ltd (AJM) is among one of their largest contracts to date, with an order worth £3.5 million. 

Timber Works is part of a calibration between Cambridge City Council and Hill Investment Partnership.  They both combined to form the Cambridge Investment Partnership (CIP) whose aim is to develop affordable housing in the heart of Cambridge.

Housing Associations and their residents have faced many challenges during the COVID Pandemic, not least of all undertaking repairs and maintenance. Whilst some minor issues can be delayed, it is essential homes remain habitable and safe so some repairs and ongoing maintenance can still be carried out. But how can this be done safely? James Kane, from condensation and mould control specialist Airtech Solutions, explains more on what steps both engineers and households can take to protect each other during work in a home.

Vent-Axia has been named as a ‘UK Business Hero’ by the British Chamber of Commerce as part of the Chamber’s campaign to recognise the incredible work UK businesses are undertaking, in the most challenging of years. Nominated by Sussex Chamber of Commerce, the leading British ventilation manufacturer was awarded this prestigious accolade for its valuable work supplying ventilation to COVID-19 hospital wards and field hospitals in unprecedented timescales, throughout lockdown and beyond. The Crawley-based company is delighted to be one of only 399 UK businesses to be given this national recognition.

John Bradley, Managing Director at Homevent, (Elta Fans residential division), discusses why this winter could see a rise in condensation – providing the perfect breeding ground for mould and reducing indoor air quality.

Just when you think 2020 couldn’t get any worse, we start to enter condensation season. Unfortunately, this year there are a number of new factors at play which could exacerbate issues further.  Let’s take a look in more detail.

In a previous article for Mitsubishi Ecodan’s ‘The Hub’ (https://les.mitsubishielectric.co.uk/the-hub/good-indoor-air-quality-is…) I mentioned that the average British person spends 22 hours a day inside… or around 90% of their overall day. Unfortunately, this is also true of our children too; 36% of parents think their kids are not spending enough time outside, whilst 1 in 6 are uncertain themselves of how much time outdoors is actually sufficient, according to various studies.

With all this time being spent indoors, it’s easy to think we are protected from the various coughs, colds and illnesses typically associated with prolonged exposure to adverse weather. We don’t tend to think about the harmful gases, chemicals and toxins that we breathe in unknowingly whilst inside throughout the course of any given day. Yet these pollutants are to blame for many of the migraines, skin and eye irritations, allergic reactions and general tiredness that we all suffer from, from time to time.

We’re all acutely aware of how air pollution can affect tenants' health. For too long, air pollution has been considered as an “outdoor problem”. But what about the air inside homes? After all, it’s the same air, just trapped within four walls. And, trapped as it is, it is susceptible to all kinds of indoor pollutants.

We spend around 90% of our time indoors, so it’s vital that the air we breathe there is clean. Together with leading air conditioning unit supplier Daikin, we explore the risks of toxins building up and reducing the air quality within the home, and what can be done to improve indoor air quality.

With over 1 million tonnes of plastic going to landfill every year in the UK alone, industry-leading ventilation company Vent-Axia is helping social housing providers reduce their environmental impact by designing modular products to reduce plastic waste. By carefully considering the design of its products, Vent-Axia’s latest energy efficient fans are even easier to repair and recycle, reducing carbon footprints and helping make ventilation even more cost effective for social housing providers.

In the past many manufacturers have recommended that if a fan has a fault it should be replaced. Not only is this expensive when the fan has exceeded its warranty period, but a lot of unnecessary waste is sent to landfill. Vent-Axia has now tackled this issue head on designing fans, such as the Lo-Carbon Revive, which have individual modular components that can all be replaced separately. So, if a Lo-Carbon Revive develops a fault it’s likely that a new spare part can be easily ordered, avoiding paying for a completely new fan. This considerably reduces the amount of plastic waste and, should the exterior of the unit require replacing, all Lo-Carbon Revive fans are made with recyclable ABS plastic.