#Coronavirus: Air Conditioner Is Safe To Use In Homes, Offices; Precautions You Need To Follow?

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, there are a plethora of myths and rumors floating around, limited to not just the symptoms and precautions revolving around the novel virus but also about our everyday lifestyle practices.

Lets understand more on the latter. With the advent of summers already around the corner, more and more people are turning towards air conditioning and cooling systems for relief.

You must have come across quite some myths and rumors related to the use of air conditioning in this Covid-19 scenario. Information like usage of ACs can lead to the spread of Covid-19 is the most common notion about the latter circulating around, today.

RAMA Speaks Up

The Refrigeration and AC manufacturers Association, RAMA has spoken up on the ongoing debate on the usage of Room Air Conditioners at home. It has decided that spreading awareness on this issue is of paramount significance.

Staying inside homes in the lockdown period is the best contribution that the countrymen can provide to stem the spread of coronavirus throughout the country.

With summers hitting the country, air conditioning and cooling has become the prime necessity of the hour. RAMA has announced yesterday that using ACs do not pose any additional risk of the spread of Covid-19 infection.

It is absolutely safe to use Air Conditioners at Home, Work Spaces and Commercial Buildings, with however, a few additional precautions.

This announcement was made during a video conferencing of association members chaired by Mr. Gurmeet Singh, RAMA and CMD, Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning India Ltd.

RAMA and ISHRAE Decide to Run Awareness Drives Throughout the Country

In order to educate and clear all the doubts and myths about using ACs during the Covid-19 phase, RAMA and the Indian Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers, ISHRAE have planned to run a nationwide awareness drive for the air conditioning and ventilation guidelines to optimize residential, commercial and hospital buildings for COVID-19 prevention.

“To dispel the misinformation and in order to educate the users and decision makers on the spread of the novel coronavirus through air conditioners, ISHRAE has released guidelines for the usage of Air Conditioners at residential and commercial spaces on 13th April.

The customers have many doubts on usage of Air Conditioning system and there is already an evidence of incorrect information on the social media.

Guidelines for Room ACs

Room air conditioners for residential applications are designed for a ‘single room application’. The users are constant and details of their health history and behavior is known, predictable and controllable and there is remote to negligible possibility of COVID 19 virus contamination.

RAMA recommends the following guidelines while using Room ACs:

• Maintain the temperature between 24-30 degree C, with 24 degrees in humid climate and 30 degrees in dry.
• The units are designed to maintain the humidity between 40 and 60. You can fill water in a shallow pan and keep it in your room to increase the humidity, in places with dry climate.
• Ventilate the room adequately by slightly keeping the window open, if possible.
• Keep the doors and windows open when AC is not operating.
• Increase the frequency of filter cleaning.
• In case of breakdown contact the authorized dealer only.

Guidelines for Central Air Conditioning Systems used in Offices and Commercial Applications

It is a common perception that central air conditioning systems are not well-ventilated, just contrary to the actual case.

A central air conditioning system also maintains Relative Humidity between 40% – 70%, which is ideal for avoiding the propagation of Covid-19 Virus.

The necessary guidelines to be followed are:

• The start-up of the system after a prolonged shutdown should follow protocols given in the ISHRAE guideline adopted by CPWD.
• The temperature should be maintained between 24 degree C and 30 degree C.
• During non-working hours and weekends, it is recommended to keep the air circulation system running at all times without cooling.
• The exhaust ventilation systems in wash rooms should be kept operational all the time.
•  The filters should be cleaned more frequently.
•  The central AC systems are designed for fresh air changes. In case the existing installed system requires augmentation, an additional inline fan / TFA units should be retrofitted.

You can visit https://ishrae.in/mailer/ISHRAE_COVID-19_Guidelines.pdf to learn more details on ISHRAE COVID-19 Guidance Document for Air Conditioning and Ventilation.