It can be difficult to keep warehouses well-ventilated. However, good ventilation is important for your workers, products and equipment.
In this blog post, you’ll learn more why ventilation is vital for warehouses. There are three main reasons ventilation is important: to reduce heat, to reduce humidity, and to improve air quality.
Reason #1: Reduce heat
Our British summers aren’t known for being hot. Most of the time, we complain about how cold and overcast it is.
However, there are some days that are hot, days when temperatures climb too high for comfort. And this hot weather can have several affects on your business.
For a start, it can affect your staff. The heat can make your workers tired and miserable. No-one likes working in the heat. Unventilated warehouses are unpleasant to work in on hot, sweltering days.
What’s more, hot weather can affect the performance of your workers. Heat can make workers perform slower and make more mistakes. Accidents become more likely when workers are overheated.
Another thing hot weather can affect is your stock. Perishable goods like food can quickly go bad at high temperatures. Also, some goods expand in high temperatures, which can damage them. That’s why it’s important to keep your stock cool.
Ventilation can help combat the effects of hot weather. By ensuring your warehouse is well ventilated, the temperature of your warehouse will stay at a comfortable level for your workers. Your stock will last longer too.
Reason #2: Reduce humidity
Humidity is another common problem in warehouses. High humidity – which is another way of saying large amounts of water in the air – can have affect your building, your products and your staff.
For a start, humidity can cause mould and mildew to grow in your building, which can harm the health of your workers and cause damage to your stock.
For another thing, humidity can cause the metal in your warehouse to corrode. This includes metal shelves, for example.
And, furthermore, humid environments are unpleasant for your staff to work in. This can have a detrimental effect on morale.
In general, humidity should not exceed 55 per cent. After this point, moisture starts to form on windows and metal, and this is when corrosion and mould starts to occur.
If humidity is a problem in your warehouse, then consider improving your ventilation system. Ventilation can help reduce humidity in your warehouse and thereby mitigate the effects of humidity.
Reason #3: Improve air quality
Fumes are another common issue in warehouses. Fumes can come from a variety of places in warehouses, such as forklifts and other gas powered vehicles. The problem with fumes is that they lower the air quality in the warehouse. Ideally, therefore, you want to minimise these fumes as much as possible so your staff stay healthy.
Ventilation can help here by extracting fumes from the warehouse and letting fresh air in from outside. This improves the air quality of the warehouse and makes employees happier and healthier.