Breathe Easy with a Modular Building
You spend at least one-third of your hours working—shouldn’t your work environment be optimized for your well-being? European countries embrace and promote modular buildings to a larger extent than we do in the U.S., and we can learn from their example. Let’s look at three important ways modular construction beats traditional construction: improved air quality, improved light quality, and easier digital monitoring of the indoor workspace.
Air Quality Improves a Modular Workspace
According to the EPA, the air inside the average building can be anywhere from two to five times as polluted as outside air. Indoor air can contain a toxic soup of contaminants like dust, exhaust, smoke, pollen, mold, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds from construction, as well as bacteria and viruses—including Covid—waiting to enter your body.
Besides the ever-present threat of Covid, poor indoor air quality can cause breathing problems, headaches, and irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat. Doesn’t sound inviting, does it? Modular buildings boast tight seals around windows, doors, and other openings, and they carry the advantage of being factory-constructed in always-dry conditions, making them better suited to keep out the contaminants you don’t want to breathe.
Additionally, Mobile Modular offers commercial-grade Air-Care Solutions:
- Filter Replacement Programs--Simplifies the process of regularly replacing HVAC filters with free-of-charge regular delivery of filters for your heating and cooling system. Or, take advantage of the Mobile Modular Plus program which includes routine inspection of your HVAC unit.
- UV Light Purification Systems—Removes contaminants through ultraviolet light rays and inactivates bacteria as it passes through your HVAC unit, resulting in air that is up to 88% clean of certain viruses (including Covid) and allergens. UV lighting is recommended by ASHRAE and the CDC for protection against the spread of viruses.
- Commercial Room Ventilators—Circulates outdoor air through electromechanical vent systems to help meet indoor air quality standards, and improves efficiency when heating and cooling your building.
And that’s not all—you can also choose to install a whole-home dehumidifier add-on, carbon monoxide (CO) alarm add-on, a ductless system and/or zoning capabilities to your HVAC, and smart thermostats that run from a smartphone app.
Light Quality Improves a Modular Workspace
According to a blog on the benefits of modular buildings in PBC Today, an online publication specializing in building construction and control, access to daylight is crucial in the workplace because it’s our connection to the outdoors and directly affects sleep patterns. They emphasize that circadian rhythms are disrupted by artificial light and states that there are scary statistics about shift workers being more susceptible to cancer.
Modular construction, because of its smaller scale, can allow for more and easier access to all-important natural lighting. Instead of the traditional-construction office space that may be dimly lit by only a few windows, a modular space can easily be customized to include more windows in better locations. Additionally, artificial lighting in a modular space can be customized to create a more optimal environment.
The Future of Workspaces and Why Modular is the Way to Go
The PBC Today blog highlights some intriguing changes coming for European workspaces—as early as the next decade—including more use of digital monitoring to keep track of indoor conditions. At some point in the future, it may become standard to decide by QR code on one’s cell phone if a building’s air quality and carbon emissions are suitable for entrance.
Modular units shine in this respect because they are more easily outfitted with digital monitoring systems than traditional buildings, and their indoor environment is more easily controlled. And, among a host of safeguards, Mobile Modular offers a carbon monoxide (CO) alarm add-on to protect you.
Breathe, live, and work easier, courtesy of Mobile Modular.
