Keeping your distance, hand disinfection, face mask and ventilation are the order of the day. Especially in waiting rooms, where a wide variety of people meet – with or without symptoms of illness, infectious diseases are transmitted very quickly via the insufficiently ventilated indoor air.
Contrary to common practice, tilted windows are not enough for an almost virus-free air in the waiting room. Regular, frequent intermittent ventilation should be the normal thing to to. But this has the major disadvantage, especially in the cold season, that the waiting room cools down, customers or patients freeze and the room has to be re-heated at great expense.
Requirement:
The ventilation requirements in medical practices can be viewed in a similar way to those in offices and the design parameters of the Workplace Directive apply. This sets requirements for free ventilation via windows and for ventilation via mechanical ventilation systems in sections ASR A3.6 and A3.7.
The CO2 concentration is a recognized measure for assessing indoor air quality. According to the workplace directive, it should not exceed 1000 ppm. This can be achieved, for example, by opening the window, then every 60 minutes, depending on the weather, intermittent ventilation should be carried out for 3 - 10 minutes. Or the air exchange takes place through a ventilation system with a volume flow of approx. 30 m³ / h per person.
In addition to the removal of CO2, the mechanical ventilation also prevents infections. Existing aerosols are transported to the outside via the devices and the fresh air supplied lowers the concentration of the aerosols in the room air.
Another possibility is the combination of mechanical ventilation and window ventilation. Through the use of efficient ventilation systems, ventilation can take place entirely above it or the number of window openings can be reduced to a minimum.
Treatment room 1 + 2 with 2 persons each
The iV-Office is designed with 25 m³/h per device in the treatment rooms, resulting in an outside air volume flow of 50 m³/h with two devices in the room (one pair of devices).
This means that 25 m³/h of fresh air are available to the people in the treatment rooms.
Waiting room with 5 persons in average
In the waiting area, the devices are designed with 30 m³/h per device, resulting in an outside air volume flow of 60 m³/h with two devices in the room (one device pair).
This means that people in the waiting room have 12 m³/h of fresh air at their disposal.
Conclusion:
The iV-Office achieves continuous basic ventilation within the specified sound emission requirements (here 35 dB(A) in the treatment room and 40 dB(A) in the waiting room). The air exchange can be temporarily increased by the user, up to 90 m³/h, or decreased to reduce the noise emission. In any case, the lack of outside air volume flow can be reached through window ventilation. By fulfilling the requirements to 50%, in this example the required number of boost ventilation can be halved, so that boost ventilation every two hours is sufficient.
