Natural Ventilation - A Strategy for Increased Productivity

Although the concept of ventilation has been around for several thousand years, the application of ventilation to overcome low productivity in warm to hot climates has been neglected over the last few decades. Since the advent of relatively cheap air conditioning owners have been seduced into installing air conditioning in the belief that the supposed increase in productivity will offset the high capital installation cost as well as the operation and maintenance expense. Local limited research has indicated that this is not the case. In fact, anecdotal evidence suggests the opposite. In a typical situation, it is not unusual to find a decrease in productivity as the workers slow down to prolong their stay in air conditioned comfort. Particularly when there is a threat that they may have to work outside after the workshop fabrication is complete. Another of the problems encountered with air conditioning is that in an endeavor to save capital costs, the cheapest (and often the nastiest) equipment is selected. The consequential lack of control of the conditions can sometimes be more enervating than if there were no a.c. at all. Not wishing to dwell on the topic, the other detrimental feature of using a.c. is its energy consumption that could lead to an increase in so called Greenhouse Gases Although the topic of globally warming is being hotly debated, unnecessary inefficient consumption of non renewable energy resources is a very poor policy.