Coda Ensures Your Business Is COVID-Secure

24 November 2020

Getting people back into the office post-COVID and months of lockdown-life needs careful consideration and management for a number of reasons. Businesses have a duty of care when requesting colleagues to return to the workplace, a colleague who can do their job from their own home should be allowed to remain working from home, but for those who cannot, they need to know that the office to which they are returning is safe to enter.

According to CIBSEs ‘emerging from lockdown’ guidance, there are a number of measures businesses need to put in place to ensure it is safe to re-occupy buildings. The operation and maintenance of HVAC systems is high on the agenda when making buildings COVID-secure.

Previously and pre-COVID, the main considerations for an efficient HVAC system was to be well managed for wellness and comfort as well as energy-efficient for carbon and cost reduction. Post-COVID, the considerations for wellness and energy efficiency still stand, however the guidelines for the new way in which we need to operate HVAC systems will have an immediate impact on energy efficiency and associated costs.

The role of IoT and digital platforms like our CODA device will be critical to managing internal air quality (IAQ) and wellness as well as managing energy efficiency to ensure that pre-COVID energy efficiency targets aren’t blown out of the water.

Wellness in the workplace is a critical prerequisite and even more so post-COVID with a greater necessity on managing and monitoring IAQ to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

But How Do We Create Wellness in the Workplace?

IoT solutions like CODA deliver insights on internal conditions within the building by:

• Considering temperature controls according to outside conditions – no one wants to be too hot or too cold building when they are dressed for the time of year.
• Creating safety around light levels during and post-occupancy.
• Monitoring occupancy levels for comfort and people flow.

And to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and its impact on building occupiers, IoT devices like CODA can

• Managing humidity and temperature levels to reduce the transmission of COVID-19
• Delivering natural ventilation where possible – no more recirculation of air.
• Ensure a constant trickle of airflow even when the building is unoccupied.
• Sensor technology delivering alerts that measure the presence of coronaviruses.
• Temperature monitoring and alerts on entrance points to a building.

What Does All This Mean for Energy Efficiency?

To do all of the above whilst managing energy efficiency is no mean feat.

Pre-COVID, IoT devices would ensure systems are off when the building is unoccupied, maintenance regimes were up to date to ensure efficient operation and certain control strategies around the operation of HVAC and airflow were set up to reduce energy consumption and cost.

Pre-COVID, the most efficient IoT and building control devices delivered up to 30% energy cost reduction for businesses.

With COVID-Secure guidelines on the operation of HVAC equipment, there are direct implications on energy efficiency and associated costs.

For example, the requirement for continuous external airflow through the AC units means the AC can no longer run on a recirculation mode resulting in the AC working harder to cool or heat the external air according to summer/winter months.

In addition, the HVAC needs to constantly trickle through the building even when it’s unoccupied; gone are the days when we achieved maximum energy cost reduction by switching all systems and equipment off out of hours.

CODA can manage the building systems according to CIBSE guidelines to ensure the buildings are COVID-Secure and through innovative software and dashboards, deliver insights into the impact on energy efficiency and identify other opportunities to reduce consumption and cost in post-COVID times. The software also validates the IAQ of the building giving owners and occupiers peace of mind that the building is COVID-secure.

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For more information or to find out how the team at CODA can help you, please call us on +44 (0)345 241 2889 or email info@codacloud.io.