Epsco lines up India spread plan

Epsco, the biggest professional indoor air quality manager in the Middle East, plans to revamp its five-year old operations in India.

The company, which is expected to have a turnover of around $7 million this year, believes that increasing awareness about the ill effects of defective air circulation in air-conditioned buildings in the country, will take its client base in India from 100 to 600 in the next one year.

Kelvin Bruce, managing director of the Dubai-based company, believes that the increasing awareness about health hazards posed by improper air-conditioning systems and the emergence of 24-hour working spaces such as call centres will help the relatively unknown industry to grow in the coming years.

He said currently around 70 per cent hotels and many of the offices in Mumbai are in need of some kind of alteration to get rid of the sick building syndrome. An improperly ventilated building affects productivity.

The company had opened one of its first overseas offices in Mumbai five years ago and currently conducts periodic health audits of the air quality at around 100 buildings in the country.

From multiplexes to bio-tech labs, many building use their services. Its instruments detect the quantity of dust, oxygen, moisture and microscopic organisms floating about in the air and makes alterations to the air-conditioning system of the building to overcome them.

"While it was slow in the beginning, we have seen a geometric progression in the number of our clients. Companies are no longer satisfied with the general air conditioning company monitoring their air quality and are increasingly looking for experts," said Sohail Parker, head of Epsco's Indian operations.

He further added that though so far its main clients have been hotels, followed by industries and laboratories. Of late, IT companies too have started hiring them. According to him, the biggest problem with Indian buildings was that of excessive dust and moisture and improper ventilation.

"The most common problem is the failure to maintain higher pressure inside the building," he points out, "which in turn, leads to warm air laden with moisture entering the building every time a door or a window is opened. This air, as it is cooled, releases moisture onto cold surfaces such as AC grills and walls and leads to mould formation, which in turn, leads to the sick building syndrome," he says.

Sunil Relia, director of engineering at JW Marriott Mumbai, which has appointed Epsco to maintain its air conditioning systems, said, "Maintaining high pressure inside the building may seem costlier at first sight, but as there is no entry of warm air every time a door is opened, it has turned out to be 20 per cent easier on power bills."

However, the traditional AC companies, which oversee the installation of equipment on the site, do not share the enthusiasm about such specialists.

A senior official from Voltas said, "Our systems are fine-tuned at the time of installation and if and when there are leakages, the degree of cooling becomes lower and the customer automatically comes to us with a complaint. I don't think there is any need for a specialist."