Ventilation in Buildings

The habitat team conducted a webinar on the topic of Rethinking Ventilation in Buildings: for healthy living in post-COVID world on 20^th July 2021. Ms. Anumita started the webinar by introducing the audiences to the latest evidence of the COVID virus being airborne and how this has put the spotlight on ventilation in order to reduce the viral load and how ventilation provides a leverage to connect healthy living with thermal comfort.

The panelists represented experts from various domains of the subject and their collective expertise provided a holistic understanding of the issue and a way forward, the panelists included Dr. Ashok Kumar from CBRI, Roorkee, an academician, scientist and is part of the CSIR’s (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) task force that made ‘Guidelines on ventilation of Residential and office buildings for SARS-COV2-Virus’. Mr. Vishal Kapur, the current National chair of the ISHRAE technical committee as well as the chair of the ISHRAE COVID-19 task force was instrumental in drafting the various guidelines on operation of HVAC systems during COVID times. Mr. Yash Pal, manager – estates at the British School represented the facility manager’s community, the British school has modified their protocols for running HVAC systems in response to the COVID virus. Mr. Deependra Prasad is from the architecture fraternity who specializes in sustainable architecture and has been involved with training people at various government and non-governmental bodies, his views were critical in understanding the response by architects/designers to the challenges posed by COVID in buildings while keeping in mind the larger agenda of sustainability.

Mr. Rajneesh Sareen and Mr. Sugeet Grover took the audience through the study conducted by CSE. The COVID-19 scenario has given rise to three main requirements in buildings: isolation rooms, cross ventilation and enhanced air changes. CSE overlaid these requirements on the current mass housing typologies being built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Urban to see how they are performing along with the existing regulatory framework in the country to regulate ventilation in built environment. CSE has come up with guidelines for both naturally ventilated and mechanically ventilate buildings. Mr. Rajneesh ended the presentation with a way forward and paved the way for the expert panel discussion.

Mr. Avikal Somvanshi reinstated that the Indian buildings do not meet the appropriate ventilation requirements and hence there is a significant evidence of Sick Building Syndrome and raised his concerns over air ducts becoming breeding chambers for pathogens.

Mr. Ashok Kumar from CBRI, Roorkee who is also part of the CSIR’s (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) task force spoke about how the air change rates were updated in CSIR’s ‘Guidelines on ventilation of Residential and office buildings for SARS-COV2-Virus” and demonstrated a tool to the audience that helps in calculating the window opening sizes based on the required air change rates and local climatic factors.

Mr. Vishal Kapur, the current National chair of the ISHRAE technical committee as well as the chair of the ISHRAE COVID-19 task force laid emphasis on various aspects of mechanical ventilation. He stated that ventilation and filtration was never thoroughly researched until date based on the health perspective owing to the bio-contaminants. He then explained the concept of equivalent air changes per hour and described it as the combination of outdoor air with the correct filtration system as a right representation of air changes rate specified by any code/guideline.

Mr Yash Pal elaborated on various strategies that he and his team has implemented within the British School to protect the staff and the students from the COVID infection. He mentioned that they have added a treated fresh air unit to the existing VRV system in the school. He further added that all the standard operating procedures defined by ASHRAE have been followed on their site such as regular monitoring and inspection, preventive maintenance, audits, etc.

Mr. Deependra Prashad, the principal Architect at DPAP, elaborated on the various methods or techniques which help bringing in the energy efficiency (in the current scenario where fresh air intake needs to be increased) – use of economizers, having narrow floor plates for enhanced ventilation, opting for radiant cooling systems, etc.

This discussion was followed by a question and answer session where the panellists were asked to deliberate on two questions that form the way forward.

• What knowledge should the public be made aware of, regarding the actions that can be taken by them to make their inhabited building safe.
• Keeping the issue in mind, what should be the regulatory response for the upcoming building stock, so as to avoid a business as usual scenario.

For more details, please contact

Sugeet Grover
sugeet.grover@cseindia.org
 9818443366