Remedial Adaptations in Building Services to Reduce COVID-19 Transmission

The work presented in this paper is aimed at assessing the various remedial building services engineering measures that can be applied to enable safer building occupation during the ongoing (at the time of writing) COVID-19 pandemic, as well as additional resilience in the event of similar events in the future. Due to the rapid development of research into the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID- 19, new data is becoming available on an ongoing basis. The available information at the time of writing has been appraised and conclusions have made based on the most prevalent scientific theories. Guidance from various building services engineering bodies have been assessed for the UK (CIBSE), Europe (RHEVA) and the USA (ASHRAE) as well as governmental guidance/mandates in the UK and abroad. This paper assesses the potential effectiveness of each measure at reducing the transmission of COVID-19; the ease of application within existing building services systems; the negative connotations for energy-usage, utility costs, carbon emissions and system maintenance/lifespan; and any adverse implications for the comfort of occupants. The investigated measures will then be appraised for their effectiveness at combatting the spread of COVID-19 compared with the ease of which they can be implemented (in terms of practicality and financial viability).