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CLEAN AND DIRTY: The difference a spotlesss system can make is clear in the comparison of these vents.

Indoor air quality is becoming an increasingly important issue in the Middle East. Peter Ward asks how much of an impact ventilation has and what obstacles are to be found in the way of progress?

A building in the Middle East with poor ventilation is destined for problems sooner than anywhere else in the world.

The extreme heat and reliance on air conditioning in the area means that not only will the operational aspect of the building suffer, but also the health of the people inhabiting it.

Ventilation is essential to achieving a good indoor air quality, a serious matter not just for people suffering from asthma or respiratory problems, but also for the public in general.

Trane marketing manager Peter Blanchflower reveals the main issues with ventilation in this region: "Generally speaking, not enough attention is being paid to adequate ventilation and the consequences are becoming evident and, in some cases, serious. Many buildings, even some new and supposedly high-quality facilities, have insufficient ventilation, which can and often does lead to the spread of mould."

Swegon regional manager Gunnar Svensson lists the major tasks of ventilation in the Middle East as getting fresh air to people indoors, establishing clean air in a building and taking moisture and material emissions out of buildings.

Circulation is a major part of ventilation, as Johnson Controls regional marketing manager Kilian Kelly explains: "When you are taking air from the outside you have to make sure that you aren't placing the fresh air plants next to a toilet extract or something like that which in some cases can be the case. Replacing your main intake can be just as important as the equipment you install in the building."

Ventilation challenges

The main challenges with ventilation are achieving a good level of indoor air quality while ensuring low energy consumption, a minimal amount of noise and no draughts in the room being ventilated. A low amount of required maintenance and a fresh air flow is also required from the systems.

Blanchflower reports: "The objective with ventilation is to dilute the build-up of indoor contaminants using clean outdoor air and to provide make-up air to replace air that is exhausted."

With this in mind it is vital to control the level of ventilation in a building through scheduled ventilation, CO² based demand controlled ventilation and a ventilation reset control. Blanchflower adds: "The ability to measure and control the supply of outdoor air is the key."

Svensson believes many of these issues can be addressed through the use of chilled beam systems: "These challenges can be overcome by using the alternative AC solution to fancoils and using chilled beam systems instead. Chilled beams secure the fresh air flow, consume less energy and produce no condensation."

Energy International general manager Wissam Fawaz reveals that some hindrance to progress has come through competition in the market: "The main issue is that we are facing a lot of competition that is bringing a lower quality to the market.

Competition with cheap material is bringing down the quality in entire market." He adds that on the bigger projects checks are made to ensure the materials used for ventilation systems are of a high quality but in some smaller developments poorer quality materials are used.

Kelly stresses that some frustration can come in persuading consultants to adopt new technologies in ventilation: "A lot of the time we find that some consultants have their favourite way of doing things, it might not necessarily be the right way, but they'll say this what they have done for years and they are adverse to change.

That's the biggest challenge we face at the moment." He adds that one of the major reasons for this is due to a lot of standards being introduced into the region without there being one set of regulations for the Middle East as a whole.

"Depending on where the consultant is from they will usually adopt the standard from their country. That can pose a big challenge in trying to convince people because at the end of the day they don't know which one to trust," states Kelly.

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