{"id":2653,"date":"2019-10-12T17:42:43","date_gmt":"2019-10-12T17:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.airxchange.com\/?p=2653"},"modified":"2019-10-15T13:34:16","modified_gmt":"2019-10-15T13:34:16","slug":"new-study-confirms-economic-and-health-benefits-of-increased-ventilation-and-ervs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.airxchange.com\/2019\/10\/new-study-confirms-economic-and-health-benefits-of-increased-ventilation-and-ervs\/","title":{"rendered":"New study confirms economic and health benefits of increased ventilation and ERVs"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study by Harvard’s School of Public Health, SUNY Upstate Medical, Syracuse University,\u00a0and United Technologies, titled\u00a0“Economic, Environmental and Health Implications of Enhanced Ventilation in Office Buildings,<\/strong>”\u00a0finds that doubling the ventilation rates in office buildings returns up to $6500 worth of productivity gains per person, per year. The study also finds that using energy recovery ventilation mitigates the extra energy costs from increased ventilation.<\/p>\n

This work builds on another recently released study, titled\u00a0“Impact of Green Building on Cognitive Function<\/strong>“,\u00a0from the same research team. Unlike previous work that linked increased ventilation to improved\u00a0health, the initial\u00a0study from this group\u00a0focused on the\u00a0cognitive\u00a0benefits of\u00a0increased ventilation rates.<\/p>\n

The initial cognitive study was conducted on two-dozen participants and took place over two weeks. Participants performed their normal work functions until 3 p.m. and then completed an\u00a0hour and a half of cognitive tests. Nine different cognitive categories were measured.<\/p>\n

Results indicated an average cognitive improvement of 101% over all nine categories when office ventilation rates were set to double the standard code-minimum rates. The highest cognitive improvements were measured in the information usage (299%), strategy (288%), and crisis response (131%) categories.<\/p>\n

The new\u00a0economic study concludes that the public health benefits of enhanced ventilation far exceed the per-occupant costs. The study also finds that\u00a0adding ERV to a building’s\u00a0HVAC system neutralizes energy cost increases, removing any economic and environmental barriers for widespread adoption of increased ventilation rates.<\/p>\n

Learn More<\/strong>
\nThe website for the\u00a0National Institutes of Health<\/strong>\u00a0features abstracts and download links for each of the two studies mentioned above:<\/p>\n