National guidelines recommend that Australian adults perform between 2.5 and 5 hours of moderate-intensity physical activity per week to maintain a healthy lifestyle. However, motivation can be hard in the warmer months, when sports are either outdoors in the sun, or in sporting facilities which are often known for being hot and stuffy.
How can you make your indoor sports centre more comfortable and inviting, promoting a healthier lifestyle for your members?
Fans are an essential consideration for your sports centres. Read more about the benefits you’ll gain from providing proper ventilation.
Why do you need fans for indoor sports centres?
Are you unsure if installing fans will be worth the cost and effort? Here are some of the benefits to consider:
- Reducing heat load – fans can support the functioning of your heating, ventilation and air cooling (HVAC) system by ensuring even temperature distribution. Without fans, the heat in a room can rise to the top, and your HVAC system will need to fill the entire room with temperate air to ensure even temperature distribution. With a fan, the hot air is dispersed and circulated properly, minimising your use of HVAC.
- Keeping club members comfortable – when training, your members will become hot and sweaty due to the physical activity. Fans aid in the body’s natural ‘evaporative cooling’ process to help hot water evaporate from the body, providing a more regulated body temperature. If your facility is known for being uncomfortable, it’s easy enough for people to move to another facilitiy, costing you in the long run.
- Preventing odours and physical symptoms – your gym will become hot and humid without proper ventilation. Sweat will linger in the air and cause foul odours. This will drive away customers who want a clean, great-smelling place to work out.
- Keeping floors dry – ventilation helps to aid in evaporative cooling, which will help any sweat or liquids evaporate from the floor in your fitness facility. Wet floors can make your facility seem unclean and present a slipping hazard.
Certain sports hall ventilation requirements help you to achieve these benefits. Your ventilation rate should be at least 10 litres per second to comply with gym health and safety legislation.
What happens when you don’t ventilate a sports centre?
Let’s discuss the consequences of failing to provide proper ventilation for your sports centre.
- Client unhappiness which can lead to a decrease in profits. Everyone wants somewhere cool, clean and smell-free to exercise.
- Mould and mildew – the sweat produced from heavy exercise can increase the humidity levels in your facility. If you do not manage the humidity levels, this water will condense, leading to mould, mildew growth, and possibly structural damage. This can be exasperated if you have shower and toilet facilities.
- Viruses and bacteria – with humid air come increased risk for members’ health. Humid air is the perfect environment for viruses and bacteria to thrive, which could lead to your members becoming sick.
- Odours – body odour and odour from mould can quickly make the air in your gym feel foul, driving away customers and deteriorating your brand’s image.
- HVAC stress – if you do not support your HVAC system with proper ventilation, it will be working overtime to keep temperatures moderate in your gym. The strain this places on your HVAC system will reduce its lifespan, and it might not function effectively.
Considering all these negative consequences, it’s important to factor in ventilation when planning your sports centre infrastructure.
Top fan types for sports facilities
Now that you know why ventilation is important for sports facilities, you might wonder which ventilation solution you need. Here are the top fan types for sports halls and facilities.
Giant fans
Giant fans provide efficient air circulation and ventilation with a high-volume airflow capacity. They allow you to exhaust odours and humidity from your gym in high volumes and offer robust motors with a long lifespan. Giant fans are considered energy-efficient and are designed with continuous operation in mind. Most giant fans provide noise reduction technologies to ensure a pleasant atmosphere and reduce noise pollution.
Wall-mount air circulators
If you need to distribute airflow across a wide area, then wall-mount air circulators are the ideal solution. They provide a wide oscillation range for effective air circulation. You can mount them on wall brackets, ceiling hooks, and other solutions for complete adaptability. With speed control and optimised blade pitches, you can adjust wall-mount air circulators to suit your needs.
Curb base hooded roof fans
A curb base hooded roof fan should be mounted on the curb of your facility’s roof to provide extraction and air circulation. The hooded design helps to prevent backflow or debris from entering your system, which is ideal for areas with strong weather conditions. This fan type offers a high-powered motor and variable speed control to meet your specific ventilation requirements. Please note that this is a belt-drive fan, and the belt must be replaced often to maintain optimal efficiency.
Contact Fanquip for reliable and efficient ventilation solutions for commercial gyms
Without ventilation, your gym would be humid, damp, and pungent. To ensure your facility has good, clean air and is sanitary, you should invest in ventilation solutions that provide exhaust and air circulation.
Our experts at Fanquip can help you understand the ventilation requirements for sports facilities and provide recommendations for your ventilation strategy. Contact us now to make ventilation planning straightforward.
