HVLS Fans Decrease Employee Heat Stress

The health and safety of all employees are crucial to any successful business.  Let’s face it; if employees are ill or injured on the job the company’s productivity will decrease.  Many employees perform routine daily activities that can cause heat stress that can most certainly affect work performance negatively.  The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health reported that “Workers can acclimatize themselves to different levels of heat, (but) each worker has an upper limit for heat stress. J]If pushed beyond which that worker can become a heat casualty.  Further, it has been shown that a worker’s ability to focus attention and the worker’s reaction times become dramatically reduced by even a 2% dehydration level due to heat stress.”

HVLS Fans Improve Building Environment

Older designed HVAC systems aid in the production of moisture which in turn breeds bacteria, mold, and mildew. These same systems also fail to provide constant, stable temperatures which can cause products to spoil. Excessive moisture can have a devastating effect on paper files, drywall, office furniture, cloth products, and even the packaging for products.  An assured action to better protect against these ailments in the workplace would be to install high volume, low speed (HVLS) fans.  Implementing HVLS fans can save 20% or more on cooling costs for the businesses operating them.

HVLS fans improve building environments year-round.  The exhaust settings work to pull down the warm air which creates a warmer work environment in the winter months.  This also helps protect workers during the cold and flu season.  These fans work quietly and efficiently unlike high-velocity fans which are deafening to the ear and notorious for blowing around sensitive paper documentation.  With a more comfortable work environment, workers will be able to maintain their focus and increase their productivity.

The Severe Impact of Heat Stress

When employees work too hard they sweat more quickly.  Even if workers are allowed to drink water on the job, it still takes the human body up to a full 24 hours to fully rehydrate.  For employees who wear any sort of protective clothing while they work, sweat rates can increase up to 2.25 liters per hour.  There are several signs you want to watch out for if an employee appears to be suffering from heat stress.  These symptoms include a lot of perspiration, muscle aches, fatigue, loss of strength, nausea, vomiting, headache, confusion, and in some extreme cases a loss of consciousness.

Impaired mental performance can occur when the body loses just two percent of body weight.  This can cause complications with visual motor tracking, attention span, arithmetic efficiency, and short-term memory.  At a four percent fluid body loss, there is a reduction in reaction time by a whopping twenty-three percent!

A study conducted by NASA that utilized telegraph key operators revealed in 80 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, the operators will make five errors in a one hour period and up to as many as five errors in a five hour period.  When the temperature of the room reaches 90 degrees Fahrenheit the operators made nine mistakes within each hour and up to twenty-seven errors after just three hours had passed.  When the room’s temperature increased to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, the errors went up to 60 per hour or 138 errors in just a three hour window.

Why Choose MacroAir Fans

While ordinary fans might just blow the air around, these six-blade MacroAir Fans are designed with “floor jet circulation” to keep the fresh air moving.  The use of these fans actually changes the molecular structure of the air to force the temperature in the area to decrease. The optimization of this airflow is what makes MacroAir Fans so desirable.  They literally launch a column of air down into the space below and expand 360 degrees towards the walls and then travel up toward the ceiling to run back through the fan.  HVLS fan technology, like MacroAir Fans, creates a safer work environment for all employees.  This in turn prevents heat stress while at the same time saving the company money.

The Bottom Line

If you want to lower building cooling costs, reduce the impact of employee heat stress and improve your overall air quality you need to seriously consider investing in MacroAir HVLS fans.  Remember, the fewer employees on sick leave, the more money a business can make.  This trickles down to the employees who in turn will make more money since they won’t be missing time away from work.  And if the employees are comfortable in their work environment they will increase their productivity.  It’s a win-win situation for everyone.