If you are suffering from the issue of excessive moisture in your property, then you may benefit from the use of a dehumidifier. A dehumidifier, as the name suggests, gets rid of excess humidity (moisture) from the air and surrounding materials. This means that dehumidifiers can help maintain optimal humidity levels to prevent health issues or damage to your property from excess moisture. If water damage has occurred, they can also dry wet areas and materials such as plasterboard, carpets and structural supports. If you want to prevent any moisture damage to your household, or are already suffering from the issue of moisture buildup in your property, a dehumidifier can help. Please visit Agile Equipment for a full range of dehumidifiers:See Range Benefits of Using a Dehumidifier Solve Humidity Issues Moderate moisture in the air is acceptable and preferred. According to the National Asthma Council Australia1, the optimal indoor relative humidity (RH) range is between 30 and 60%. Excessive humidity above these recommended levels creates an ideal environment for mould allergenic microbes such as dust mites (see “More Notes on Allergens and Humidity” below), and can also lead to structural damage2 of buildings. It is therefore necessary to keep the relative humidity in check to prevent issues such as mould, fungus, allergies, and damage to property. A dehumidifier can automatically remove the right amount of moisture from your premises to keep humidity levels maintained at appropriate levels. Fix Significant Water Damage Sudden influxes of water through floods or bursting water systems can damage your property significantly. Not only are wet buildings impractical for occupying, they can quickly lead to warped building structures or rapid mould growth. Quickly drying excess water is key to preventing longer term damage or negative health effects. Dehumidifiers can achieve this, rapidly drawing water from the building and materials to leave them dry and usable. Other Benefits Other benefits to using a dehumidifier include: By getting rid of excessive humidity, a dehumidifier makes your house less hospitable to allergens. They can prevent or starve off mildew and mould that thrives with high moisture in the air. They can get rid of the musky odour that is accompanied by the growth of mould and mildew. Depending on which dehumidifier you use, they can purify the air and remove dust, mould spores and other harmful particulates from it, resulting in better and cleaner air quality. Lower humidity means that cereals, snacks and fresh food in your house will remain fresh for longer. By getting rid of moisture and allergens, dehumidifiers promote better health. Paint on the walls and ceiling won’t develop bubbles because of condensation, thereby lasting longer. If you are looking to rent or buy a dehumidifier, please contact us to talk further, or view our dehumidifier range here. For how to use a dehumidifier, see “How to Use a Dehumidifier” below. If you are still unsure of whether you need a dehumidifier, please see “Signs You May Need a Dehumidifier” below. If you want more information on mould and allergens, please see “Signs of Mould” and “More Notes on Allergens” below. How a Dehumidifier Works How to Use a Dehumidifier If you are looking to use a dehumidifier to dry wet carpet, please read this article or watch this video. If you have rented or bought a dehumidifier from NLR and want to ensure you use it correctly, please see our Dehumidifiers page and select the correct model to find the manual. Signs You May Need a Dehumidifier If you are sceptical of whether you need a dehumidifier or not, we have listed below questions that will help you decide: Do you have excessive moisture in the atmosphere of your building or specific parts of your building? Do you often spot wet stains on the walls or ceiling of some rooms? Do specific rooms or spaces give you a stuffy and unpleasant feeling when you enter them? Are the windows covered with condensation when you keep them closed for long? When you enter a room, do you sense an odd and musky odor (see “Signs of Mould” below)? Is mould, fungus, or mildew growing on parts of the walls or ceiling (see “Signs of Mould” below)? Do you suffer from allergies when you are at home but feel fine at other places? Does the air feel damp and heavy in some rooms or the entire building? If you have answered yes to one or more of the above, then you should definitely look into using a dehumidifier. Our technicians can inspect your house and determine whether your issue can be resolved with the use of a dehumidifier or you need additional measure to resolve it. Please contact our office to talk further, or view our dehumidifier range here. Signs of Mould Mould growth is a frequent result of excess moisture in a building, which using a dehumidifier can help rectify. If you suspect you may have mould, but aren’t sure yet, these are the tell-tale signs that you have mould growing in your building: You smell a musky odor from certain rooms and or a chimney. You get watery eyes that sting and a runny nose when you spend time in a specific room for too long which may feel similar to an allergic reaction. You get an itchy and burning feeling in your skin along with constant tingling. Your skin may also get dry, itchy, and/or scaly. If a member of the family (or yourself) has asthma, it acts up more frequently at home or in certain rooms than outside. There is bubbling on the paint. It can be on the walls or even ceiling. If you have poster sheets instead of paint, they may also bubble. You are suffering from breathing problems and cough a lot even though you don’t have a cold. Exhaust fan or HVAC lining is getting jammed often. If you have small children at home, they may cough at night or when windows are closed and there isn’t enough

Do we need an air scrubber for our data centre? Data centres/server rooms largely rely on cooling via airflow for the optimal running of their systems. inevitably, with this airflow will come dust particles. Hardware that is sub-par in cleanliness can drastically affect the performance of data centres. Such microscopic particulates can cause problems to hardware which could be hard to fix, or eventually lead to data loss. Therefore it is imperative to upkeep standards of air quality and cleanliness to data centres. There are international standards for cleaning of controlled environments such as data centres, with the relevant standards being the ISO 14644-1 2015 series (14644-1 to 14644-2). Specifically class 8 standard is the relevant standard to data centres. Class 8 allows for 3,52 million 0.5μm particles per cubic metre. In some cases, OEM warranty from particular manufacturers of hardware used in data centres is not covered for dust damage, as Class 8 standards of cleanliness are the expected standard in the environments in which this hardware was to be installed. Furthermore, the ISO 15644-2 2015 states that to reach a level of class 8, the room must be cleaned at least every 12 months, if not, then more frequently. Our range of air scrubbers helps filter the air of dust particles, ensuring air quality can reach the standard of class 8. Dust is a risk factor that cannot be left unchecked with data centres, there need to be countermeasures put in place. Data Center Air Cooling Diagram What are air scrubbers? A HEPA air scrubber, or “HEPA air filter”, is used to filter out gases, particles or chemicals out of a particular area. It is generally used to improve indoor air quality by trapping airborne particles. There are also a carbon filter attachment which can be put on the end of the HEPA air scrubber which can be used to trap odours and have a better rate of “scrubbing” the air. It traps these gases, particles and/or chemicals by intaking air, and passing it through a series of filters. In a data centre/server room, it is more than just simply a server room dust collector. The use of both a primary HEPA filter and a carbon filter ensures a high rate of air “scrubbing” can occur as the air passes through the machine. The air is then exhausted out of the machine, and cycle continues. Depending on the model, the Air scrubber will filter a certain amount of “air exchanges” that can happen per hour. Simply put, if the air exchanges 7 times per hour, as the HEPA 500 model achieves, it means that the total air in the room (or its CFM range) is replaced 7 times within an hour period. By the air continuously going through this process of being scrubbed at a rate of 7 times per hour, it successfully scrubs the air of unwanted dust particles, chemicals and/or odours.   Hepa Purifier Standard Rental Details The standard hire period for our HEPA rentals is 3 days. Rental costs for air scrubbers start at $99 inc GST per day however, there is a percentage discount for weekly and monthly rentals. Full payment for the hire is required upfront. If the hire is for greater than 2 weeks, then 2 weeks of hire will be kept as a deposit. In addition to this, you will need to purchase a pre-filter which we can supply. They are approximately $30 each and need to be purchased for each use. The pre-filter is basically a filter placed in front of the HEPA filter to filter out coarse dust particles. A pre-filter must be used, or the HEPA filter inside the unit can be destroyed. Rental Contract A rental contract will need to be signed with every hire and a copy of a drivers licence will need to be kept on file. We will follow all privacy legislation.

What is an Air Scrubber? A Hepa air scrubber is used to filter out gases, particles or chemicals out of a particular area. It is generally used to improve indoor air quality by trapping airborne particles. There is also a carbon filter attachment that can be put on the end of the Hepa air scrubber which can be used to trap odours. What is a negative air machine? A negative air machine works the same way as a Hepa air scrubber. In fact, they are often the same machine. The only difference in the operation of the machine is that the exhausted air is ducted outside the room rather than inside the room. This keeps the room under constant negative pressure. What is the advantage of a negative air machine? Why would we filter the clean air from the HEPA air scrubber outside the room? The advantage of this is we are creating negative pressure inside the contained area. This means that there is a lower chance of contaminated air escaping the room. Instead, the negative air created inside the room will not allow air to leak outside the room. An example of when you might use negative air is in mould remediation. The actions used to remove mould disrupts the surfaces and mould spores can become airborne and spread throughout the property. This is not a good situation as mould spores landing on surfaces can promote cross-contamination and the mould problem could get worse. Creating containment around the area which is remediated mitigates this risk. To help reduce the risk of further contamination, a negative air machine can be used to create negative air pressure in the room which can reduce the risk of contaminated air escaping through small holes and cracks in the containment barrier and other recesses and cracks in the walls and room. Interested in Hiring? We provide air scrubber rental and negative air machine rental in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne area for a range of different applications. We can supply containment barriers, ducting, Hepa vacuums and air scrubbers for hire. Negative Air Machine Hepa Air Scrubber Hire Locations Brisbane Sydney Melbourne