A care home operates a centralised heating system such as a gas boiler or heat pump. Rooms are heated with a series of radiators/emitters which take up valuable wall space and can cause obstruction. These radiators dry the air out and circulate dust across the building, spreading smells, virus and other nasties.
Dry air and smells cause residents and care staff to open windows across the care home, further spreading the nasties from
room-to-room, creating cross drafts and throwing around 30% of the valuable warmth out of the window.
This foul air seeps into the building fabric. It slows everyone down and becomes quite a nasty place to live in, work in or to visit as a relative. Visits from outside become challenging as relatives can’t bear the thought of sitting around in these conditions – the smell and heat hitting them as they enter through the front door.
Prospective clients visiting the home pick up on the heat, the drafts, the smell and the general lethargy of everyone struggling to carry out daily routines and think twice about placing their loved ones into the home.
Okay, so this is a pretty desperate picture and, of course, not all homes are like this. However, these situations are reflected to some degree in most care homes – new or old. In fact, the author has an elderly mother in a 2 year old home with a heat pump and this very much reflects this position. Sitting with his Mother is challenging at the best of times (dementia) but the smell and dry air has scared off all other family members.
Fitted into the wall of this room is a decentralised ventilation system that provides constant fresh air whilst recovering 99% of the heat and using less than 1watt of electricity. It senses when CO2, moisture or VOC levels are high and automatically purges the room.
As the heating system is fast reacting, common areas may be zone controlled and drop back to a lower temperature when not in use, further saving energy.
What about installation and maintenance? Both systems can be installed within a day to an average sized room and can form part of a decor upgrade. No more Engineer call outs in this home – the heating has no moving parts and requires no servicing for the life of the system – that’s in excess of 50 years. The ventilation system can be serviced by the cleaning crew as simply as changing a filter on a vacuum cleaner.
So – less money spent on heating, less virus spread, happier staff and residents, more visits from relatives and more bookings from prospective customers.
For further information and to see the systems in operation – pop over to stand B26 at the Care Show, Birmingham NEC on 9th and 10th October or to see the Author talk about this in more detail then go to How to improve our resident comfort, attract more visitors and reduce energy costs