Ensuring your ventilation systems are COVID-Secure

Ensuring a safe means of ventilating your building represents a vital step in ensuring that business owners can safely allow premises to be re-opened. Key to this are:

• a clear understanding of the risk factors and virus transmission routes 
• an understanding of what your building ventilation systems can safely permit and 
• an understanding of how the ventilation of your building can be adapted to enable a safe return to work for as many people as possible.

COVID-19 is known to be transmitted via airborne transmission through small particles that may stay airborne for several hours. It is known to remain active for up to 3 hours in indoor air, and whilst a cleaning regime can help manage the risk of contamination from surfaces, the virus is known to travel long distances in the air ducts of ventilation systems. Ensuring the provision of as much fresh air as possible is key to reducing the viral load and protecting your staff, customers and building users.

How Skelly & Couch can help

Skelly & Couch are highly experienced Building Services engineers who have established a great reputation for designing ventilation systems within buildings including offices, laboratories, schools, theatres and factories. We have always promoted the provision of fresh air via opening windows and the health benefits associated with an adequate supply of fresh air, and are perfectly placed to help determine how to make the best of your building’s ventilation systems as we prepare to re-populate buildings.

Even the best-designed ventilation system is not optimised to dealing with COVID-19, which has reprioritised the functions of ventilation systems away from comfort and certain forms of heat recovery and towards the removal of airborne contaminants. All ventilation designs would benefit from a review to ensure that they are capable of providing what current conditions demand of them.

We are independent consulting engineers, with no relationships to any installers, manufacturers or contractors and can offer fully impartial advice. We have over 30 specialist Building Services engineers highly trained and experienced in understanding, designing and improving the ventilation systems of buildings to help maintain a healthy indoor environment. We are capable of responding rapidly to understand how the ventilation of your building operates and we can respond quickly with initial advice about:

• how to rapidly adapt the systems in place to maximise the provision of fresh air and to use the ALARA principle (“As Low as Reasonably Achievable”) to control airborne hygiene, to help manage compliance with guidelines
• implementing enhanced building controls to achieve the required outcomes without undue energy wastage
• avoiding the unintended consequences of unguided ad-hoc adaptations
• implementing the necessary adaptations, including assistance with procuring suitable installers
• realising long-term benefits from these adaptations to improve the indoor environment, reduce the energy consumed and implement heat recovery in a healthy and sustainable fashion
• balancing and mitigating the requirement to achieve greater levels of ventilation provision against the potential reduction in comfort conditions
• any likely costs to adapt the systems and the implications for building running costs.

A Personalised and Adaptable Approach

Each building would be considered on its own strengths and weaknesses and our approach would be tuned to the specific requirements of each Client. Our suggested approach would be as follows:

1. Upon receiving an enquiry to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or your normal contact, we would assign a dedicated, experienced engineer to work with you to understand your building, your needs and your timescales.

2. We would give you a clear, up-front price to provide you with a site visit, an inspection of your premises and the systems within them and an interview to understand your requirements for the building.

3. We would provide a personalised report, written by Chartered Engineers and experienced building modellers indicating: 

• • how your ventilation systems operate now
  • the apparent COVID-19 associated risks and opportunities
  • how safe the ventilation appears to be and guidance on what level of occupancy your existing systems can provide, based initially on a simplified calculation method
  • the required steps to achieve this
  • any residual liability and risk exposure.

4. Following the provision of this initial report, further steps would be agreed which might include:

• • An online meeting to discuss the findings in more detail
  • More detailed modelling to provide increased certainty on the amount of ventilation that can be achieved
  • Assistance with the selection of other designers, project managers and specialist contractors who might be required to help carry out the necessary works
  • Inspection and site supervision services to help ensure quality is maintained throughout any work
  • Helping to manage the ongoing concerns of building occupants in relation to the ventilation systems
  • Assisting businesses in capitalising on this opportunity to improve comfort conditions and sustainability in the longer term
  • Outline costs for system adaptions and commentary on running costs.
    
    

Our Clients

Skelly & Couch have been trusted by major clients since 2007 for the design of safe and efficient building services. Our Clients include:

• numerous universities including Oxford and Cambridge
• the National Theatre, Lloyd Webber Theatres, The London Theatre Company, Shakespeare’s Globe, and several other independent theatres
• the City of London and multiple London boroughs including Camden, Wandsworth, Havering 
• many notable independent schools
• Museums and galleries including the Museum of Science and Industry, the Horniman Museum, the Historic Dockyard Chatham, the Jerwood Gallery
• The Royal Horticultural Society and the Royal Botanic Gardens.

We need to communicate clearly to realise our ideas and designs. This means presenting often very technical information in a clear visual form which can be understood by our clients and architects.

Having a good understanding of all aspects of building services engineering and environmental design allows our engineers to innovate using proven technology and design in new applications.

The use of BIM suits the Skelly & Couch approach, which is to develop integrated, coordinated and detailed designs by engineers who are able to do all aspects of the design, produce their own drawings and do their own energy and environmental modelling.

Our approach to the M&E strategy will be that of providing a robust installation. By robust we mean:

• Flexible and adaptive
• Cost-efficient
• Intuitive
• Visually appropriate

We undertake detailed modelling as early as possible to make well informed decisions about the passive and active elements of environmental design.

We use a range of modelling software as design tools as part of an iterative process rather than simply a means to compliance.

All projects are resourced with senior level engineers throughout to ensure that site opportunities are maximised and realised. This is especially important during the early design stages where key decisions, which influence the environmental strategy, are made. 

We apply our specialist skills as designers and detailed knowledge of building physics (acoustics, lighting and thermodynamics); building technology; building services; and environmental psychology to the wholly collaborative process of designing buildings.

We do this in a way that empowers the architect and client to make informed design decisions, leading to the best possible built environment within the specific constraints.

This privacy policy sets out how Skelly & Couch uses and protects any information that you give Skelly & Couch when you use this website.

Skelly & Couch is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

Skelly & Couch may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective from 05/09/2014.

What we collect

We may collect the following information:

• name and job title
• contact information including email address
• demographic information such as postcode, preferences and interests
• other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers

What we do with the information we gather

We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

• internal record keeping
• we may use the information to improve our products and services
• we may periodically send promotional emails about new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided
• from time to time we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email, phone, fax or mail. We may use the information to customise the website according to your interests

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure,we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online. 

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer's hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences. 

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system. 

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us. 

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

We use the following Google Analytics cookies on this website:

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Controlling your personal information

You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways:

• whenever you are asked to fill in a form on the website, look for the box that you can click to indicate that you do not want the information to be used by anybody for direct marketing purposes
• if you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by writing to or emailing us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen.

You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998. A small fee will be payable. If you would like a copy of the information held on you please write to Skelly & Couch, 6-9, Union Wharf, 23 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7SB, United Kingdon.

If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to or email us as soon as possible, at the above address. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.

BEng (Hons)

Senior Engineer

Oliver Harris received a BEng from the University of Leeds in Energy and Environmental Engineering in 2008. 

Whilst at university he founded the Energy and Environmental Engineering Society. This involved liaising with students, staff and energy companies to create a much-needed society for students. 

MEng CEng FIMechE

Associate - Newcastle

Rosie Jones received a first class MEng Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College, London, with her Master’s year spent at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

MEng CEng MCIBSE

Associate Director - Bristol Office

Julian Cottrill received a MEng from the University of Bristol in Mechanical Engineering in 2004. Starting work with Max Fordham Consulting Engineers in 2004, he became a partner in 2008 and in 2009 joined Skelly & Couch.