Industrial Ventilation: Air-Change Norms in Georgia

Why a production site needs ventilation

In industry, ventilation isn't about comfort. It's about safety and the law.

Machines give off heat. Welding produces fumes and gases. Spray booths release solvent vapours. Without proper ventilation the concentration of harmful substances exceeds the permitted limit, and the business breaches occupational-safety rules.

The consequences: fines, a production stop, claims from workers.

The regulatory basis in Georgia

Georgia uses a mix of its own regulations and international standards:

• EN 16798 — the European standard for indoor climate parameters
• ISO 16890 — the classification of air filters
• ASHRAE 62.1 — the international ventilation benchmark
• Georgian Ministry of Health occupational-safety norms

A design accounts for all four sources. That builds in a safety margin and gets you through inspections.

Air-change rate: the key figure

The air-change rate shows how many times per hour the air in a space is fully replaced. The formula: L = V × n, where L is the airflow (m³/h), V is the room volume (m³) and n is the rate.

Norms by production type:

• Warehouses: 1–2 changes/h
• Machine shops: 3–5 changes/h
• Welding areas: 8–12 changes/h
• Spray booths: 15–25 changes/h
• Labs with fume hoods: 10–15 changes/h

Two types of industrial ventilation

General

Works on the whole space: evenly removing contaminated air and replacing it with fresh. Simple, but not always enough.

Local

Captures harmful emissions right at the source: extraction hoods over machines, side-draught extracts over tanks, enclosures over spray booths.

The optimal solution is a combination of both: local extraction at the sources plus general ventilation for background air change.

Filtering the exhaust air

Industrial ventilation not only supplies clean air but also cleans what it exhausts. That's an environmental requirement.

• Mechanical filters — dust, swarf, coarse particles
• Carbon filters — gases, solvent vapours, odours
• HEPA filters — fine particulates (pharma, electronics)

Heat recovery: 60–80% savings

Industrial ventilation consumes a significant share of a plant's energy. A recuperator returns the heat of the exhaust air to the supply.

An example for a 1,000 m² workshop:

• Without a recuperator: 8,000–15,000 GEL/year to heat the ventilation air
• With a recuperator (75 % efficiency): 2,000–4,000 GEL/year
• Payback: 2–3 years

Design and delivery

Every industrial project starts with an audit:

1. The type of production and the contamination sources
2. The layout, room volumes and heat loads
3. Air-change calculation and equipment selection
4. Drawings and specifications
5. Installation and commissioning

VentService delivers industrial ventilation projects across Georgia — discuss your project with an engineer.

← All blog articles