Modern office buildings are gravitating toward a sleek, open-concept design for optimal collaboration and accessibility. However, this trend ignores a significant health factor – the quality of the air you breathe. By investing in UV light disinfection like Farlite® Solution’s UVPhasor® fixture, you can keep your employees safe, healthy, and productive at work.
Most Americans spend a large amount of time at the workplace, adding up to an incredible average of 15 years, three months, and seven days throughout their lives. This makes air quality and UVC light disinfection for staff health vital. Not only can finding ways to boost overall health make employees happier and nurture trust, but it can also improve productivity and your company’s bottom line.
Understanding Indoor Air Quality and Key Factors That UV Light Disinfection Can Combat
What makes up indoor air quality is a complex combination of a myriad of factors, including:
- Particulate matter: This means a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets that are suspended in the air. They could include things like pollen or dust particles, both of which can be harmful when breathed in, sometimes leading to respiratory issues or cardiovascular problems.
- Volatile organic compounds: These are chemicals that quickly evaporate at room temperature. They can be found in numerous products found in an office, such as cleaning products, furniture or upholstery, and even carpets. Being exposed to these compounds can result in nose, throat, or eye irritation, as well as more serious complications like nerve conditions.
- Biological contaminants: This type of contaminant includes things like bacteria, viruses, fungi, or pollen – all of which can be combated with UV light disinfection technology. Oftentimes, exposure to biological contaminants leads to allergic reactions, respiratory problems, or serious dizziness over time. By investing in UV light disinfection fixtures, you can help effectively reduce the amount of contaminants in your open-space office’s air.
By choosing to opt for modern techniques like the UVPhasor fixture, you can proactively and consistently keep dangerous bacteria from creating a less-than-optimal – and even dangerous — environment for your employees.
Why Some Indoor Air Disinfection Systems Are Better Solutions Than Others
Measurably improving indoor air quality requires a constant, meticulous, and engineered approach, so although UV light disinfection in general can improve air quality, no current UV solutions are as effective as the Farlite UVPhasor system.
For example, many business owners are told that HVAC systems are the best way to fight poor air quality in open-plan office buildings, particularly those installed with UV lights within the air handler or ductwork. However, this is problematic because traditional HVAC systems simply recirculate air, sometimes even acting as a recyclable delivery system for airborne pathogens and harmful matter. While HVAC filters can usually catch larger particles, most microorganisms can slip through and recirculate throughout the room – and the installed UV lights aren’t effective in removing enough harmful pathogens from the large spaces to prevent illness.
Additionally, the HVAC-UV light combination requires frequent maintenance that often gets neglected.
Farlite’s engineered approach is far superior to this method of deactivating harmful pathogens and thus, improving air quality. The UVPhasor fixture acts as a silent, invisible first line of defense for your office building by constantly inactivating airborne pathogens from the air, no matter how small the particles are. It works with your HVAC so that it becomes virtually impossible to become infected in a Farlite-protected space.
Another chemical-free method for helping improve office air quality is investing in biophilic design. This means investing in plants throughout the office to help filter air pollutants and improve employee well-being. While plants are healthy to have around and are even linked to boosted productivity, the volume of bacteria they are able to disperse is not equal to UV light disinfection, especially for large, open-concept office spaces. Using UV light technology can serve as a significantly larger-scale option for your office space’s air disinfection needs.
Farlite’s UVPhasor technology can be paired with these options to create an all-around cleaner and healthier environment. The UVPhasors are custom-installed for your space and your airflow. This makes it a customizable solution for open-plan office buildings that need an air quality reset, and results in continuous indoor air disinfection with no human intervention required.
UVC Light Disinfection: Promoting Health and Wellness in the Workplace
Even if one of your business’s goals is to promote a healthy and productive environment, onslaughts of sick days, unhealthy employees, and poor air quality could be offsetting that. To truly connect the dots between healthy workplaces and productive employees, you must take concrete steps to improve your building’s air quality – including effective UV light disinfection options.
Air quality can negatively affect employees in a vast variety of ways, including:
- Headaches
- Fatigues
- Respiratory issues
- Allergies
While these seem like insignificant symptoms, over time, they can contribute to things like absenteeism and presenteeism. Employees may need to skip work for sick days, or show up to work ill and not be fully present, and thus, unproductive.
UVC light disinfection can also significantly decrease the transmission of common illnesses that spread throughout an office, including common colds, flu, and other non-serious illnesses. With Farlite’s UVPhasor, you can cut back on employee sick days, low morale, and downticks in productivity. When employees feel valued and healthy, not only will they feel happier, but they will yield better results over time.
And, most importantly, an effective UV air disinfection system can prevent the transmission of more serious illnesses among your employees, including COVID, serious flu strains, tuberculosis, RSV, and more.
How UV Light Improves Air Quality: The Science Behind the Bulb
UV light disinfection may seem mysterious, but the technology has been used for years for disinfection purposes. Farlite’s UV indoor air disinfection system uses physics, chemistry, and biology to effectively offer a constant, reliable cleaning system for any space. The UVPhaser utilizes UVC wavelengths to physically break down microorganisms and bacteria, stopping them from reproducing and recirculating throughout the office.
UVC light is considered the “germicidal” type of UV light. The other categories of UV light are UVA and UVB, both of which have longer wavelengths that don’t eliminate pathogens as effectively as UVC light. Farlite has scientifically found a way to engineer its fixture to deliver this powerful germicidal UV light for safe, effective UV light disinfection. The UVPhasor’s unique upward light design presents no danger to occupants below. Since small airborne particles rise with constantly moving indoor air (and outdoor drafts that enter the building), the upward-facing UV light can consistently inactivate these pathogens before they can infect building occupants.
Taking the Next Step Toward a Healthier Workplace by Opting for UV Light Disinfection
Open-air offices are geared toward airy, natural aesthetics. But the air within that space can cause your employees to face poor health, negative side effects, dips in productivity, and even mental health concerns if not treated correctly. If your goal is a modern, sleek office design, then opt for the most modern and effective air quality disinfection system on the market – UV light technology. This investment will not only protect your employees, but it can also help create a happier, healthier workplace for all.
Contact Farlite Solutions today for a UV light disinfection consultation for your open-plan office building.