Sick building syndrome or SBS is a special condition where people feel unwell when they are in a building, but the symptoms disappear when people reach their home or leave the building. If your office employees currently have sick building syndrome, you should be worried, especially if you’re in charge of the facility management. However, this problem can be solved easily by doing a few preventive HVAC or air conditioner maintenance checkups.
Relation between Preventive HVAC Maintenance and Sick Building Syndrome
What are the Signs or Symptoms of the Sick Building Syndrome?
Sick building syndrome is difficult to understand if you haven’t experienced it first-hand. Some business owners consider sick building syndrome as an excuse and don’t give any attention to it. But if you care about your office employees’ health and their productivity, you should be concerned about this syndrome.
You may be thinking, how do I know if my employees are making excuses or actually suffering from the sick building syndrome? I have a solution for it too. If you notice these signs or symptoms in your building and employees, you’re currently having the SBS issue.
Building Signs
- High humidity problem
- Foul odor
- Stuffy air and smells like some toxic chemicals
- Notice molds in the air ducts and
- Hot and cold spots
Employees’ Symptoms
- Nausea
- Headache
- Dizziness
- Cough
- Dry Skin, etc.
3 Causes of Sick Building Syndrome & How to Prevent It
1. Bacteria and Mold
Molds and bacteria play a key role in creating mass sick building syndrome. Besides, if you already have a high humidity problem in your office space, this situation can get even worse.
When there are molds and bacteria in your office space, your employees will start to suffer from various respiratory diseases. Besides, molds can reduce the indoor air quality of your office space and produce an unpleasant smell. As a result, the overall working environment will become worse, and your employees will start to leave your company.
As soon as you notice molds and bacteria in your office space, you’ll have to call a nearby HVAC professional and air duct cleaning service. Besides, if your office has been closed for months, an HVAC maintenance service is a must to protect your employees from molds and bacteria.
2. High Humidity
Like molds and bacteria, high humidity can cause sick building syndrome as well. When there is high humidity in your office space, various microorganisms will start to grow inside your office space. Eventually, your office’s indoor air quality will get reduced and have sick building syndrome.
High humidity problem mainly occurs when the HVAC system doesn’t perform effectively. That’s why to solve this problem, you’ll have to ensure that your HVAC unit is functioning properly. And for this, you must do preventive HVAC or air conditioner maintenance checkups.
If you’re currently using your AC as a primary cooling unit, you should do at least two maintenance checkups annually. When you do an HVAC maintenance checkup, an HVAC professional will check the unit thoroughly, and if the technician finds any problem, the problem will be fixed immediately. As a result, you won’t have any high humidity or poor indoor air quality problem.
3. Outside Air Pollution
If you have a defect in your HVAC design, outdoor pollutants will get inside your office space and make everyone ill. To solve this problem, you’ll have to redesign your HVAC setup. Besides, you should invest in a high-rated HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Absorbing) or MERV air filter.
By installing a high-rated HVAC air filter in your office HVAC system, you can improve the air quality drastically. High-rated HEPA air filters are able to block microparticles and allergens from entering your office space. As a result, when you install such air filters in your office AC or HVAC system, the indoor air quality will be improved drastically.
For redesigning your office HVAC setup, you should consult an HVAC professional. If your office is in Dallas, you can contact Green Leaf Air.
Green Leaf Air offers the best air conditioner, furnace, and heat pump repair and maintenance service in Dallas, TX. Our professional HVAC technicians are ready 24×7 to help you with any sort of HVAC problem. We also offer free quote service to our clients.
See the summary of this article here – Sick Building Syndrome & Importance of Preventive HVAC Maintenance…
