Short report “Cost Effective Ventilation in Hot & Humid Climates”

During a well-attended event organized by KIVI Kring Caribbean – Aruba on the 29th of June 2023, speaker Jan van Haren Manager at Pro-tec Mechanical Contractors Aruba gave an excellent presentation on the importance of proper building ventilation.

     

His presentation can be found here.

Some highlights of the presentation are:

  • Pressurize the building with preconditioned outside air
  • Standards indicate proper ventilation rates. An example for an office space was shown: 25 m3 fresh air per hour per person on 10 m2 area
  • Preconditioning requires energy leading to extra operational costs
  • Measure CO2 or VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) in spaces where people are
  • CO2 healthy level of 1200 ppm or less should be maintained
  • Although preconditioning of outside air has its cost the benefits are much bigger, i.e. less sickness, more productivity of persons present in the building and lower building maintenance costs
  • CO2 measurement before and after the presentation showed a surprisingly increase up to 3000 ppm in Room A  of the University of Aruba, where the activity was organized. A clear lack of ventilation that created an unacceptable high level of CO2.

      

The speaker Jan van Haren also provided the participants with some handouts on this topic.

KIVI KRING CARIBBEAN – ARUBA organizes its next activity with the following title:

“Cost Effective Ventilation in Hot & Humid Climates”

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has made us all aware of the importance of proper ventilation. The following image of an outbreak in restaurant X involving three non-associated families in Guangzhou, China (for more info please visit Evidence for probable aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in a poorly ventilated restaurant | medRxiv ) will always remain on our retina’s.

MedRxiv April 22, 2020

The role of aerosols and proper ventilation is now self-evident. And ventilation is exactly the focus of this presentation presented by Jan van Haren at the next activity of KIVI Kring Caribbean – Aruba.

Fresh air is important for the human being to stay healthy, productive and in a good mood. Ventilation to maintain fresh air in buildings has been a standard practice around the world for decades. Examples of the above mentioned pandemic and repeating dust clouds (including aerosols, viruses, bacteria etc.) confirm the importance of ventilation. Proper ventilation in buildings however requires outside air and energy, and energy cost money.

Jan van Haren is Manager Engineering & Building Automation Systems at Pro-Tec Mechanical Contractors Aruba, which recently became a part of the Van Dorp Group in the Netherlands. Jan will highlight the topics such as why ventilation is needed and how to do a proper ventilation. Further more he will present the technical solutions for forced ventilation taking into account the financial implications with respect to energy use to ventilate buildings, and specifically in hot and humid climate conditions like in Aruba.  

Jan was born, raised and educated in the Netherlands. He graduated at a “MTS” (“Middelbare Technische School”) in Mechanical Engineering, followed by 2 years of “MIT” (“Middelbare Installatietechniek”) for building service systems and 2 years of “HIT” (“Hogere Installatietechniek”) which covered design and selections of air handling and ventilation. Jan worked for 3 years in work preparation at a renowned building service system contractor in the Netherlands. Later at the end of last century he moved to Aruba to compete in the famous Aruban pro-am Hiwinds, however he fell in love with islands charms and so didn’t return back home. Jan is a member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) and the Dutch TVVL (“De Nederlandse technische vereniging voor installaties in gebouwen”).

KIVI KRING Caribbean - Aruba invites all engineers and others interested to attend this presentation to get more insight in cost effective ventilation of buildings. Especially now after the last pandemic it is important to update your knowledge on this issue.

This activity will take place at the University of Aruba in room A at Juancho Irausquin Plein 4, Oranjestad on Thursday June 29, 2023 at 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. followed by a network meeting from 8:00 – 9:00 p.m. while enjoying a drink and a snack. An entrance fee of 20 AWG florins is charged to KIVI members to cover the costs while non-members are charged 25 AWG fls. There is a free entrance for students at the University of Aruba while the entrance fee for the PhD candidates is 10 AWG fls. You can register via the KIVI website.

 

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