Christoph Kaup

When you look at ventilation and air handling today, what is changing the most?

Two drivers are becoming increasingly important. The first is health. Since the pandemic, people are more aware that the air we breathe affects wellbeing and performance. The challenge is that you cannot see air, polluted indoor air can look the same as clean air, so it is easy to underestimate the risk until it becomes a problem. 

And the second driver?

Energy. Ventilation moves large volumes of air, so it requires electrical power for the fans. At the same time, well-designed heat recovery can significantly reduce heating demand. The best results come when ventilation is considered as part of the building’s overall energy system, not as an isolated product choice. 

You often talk about the system solution rather than separate products. What do you mean by that?

Ventilation, heat recovery, heating and cooling interact. If you design them together, you can reduce energy use and avoid oversizing other equipment. If they are treated separately, you often pay more and get less performance over the building’s lifecycle. In many applications, operational costs dominate, so even relatively small efficiency losses can have a large financial impact over time. 

Where do you typically see performance being lost between design intent and real operation? 

Very often it is not the concept that fails, it is execution and follow-up. Commissioning, correct settings and proper maintenance matter. I have seen sites where a heat recovery function simply was not operating, and the building ran for years without the efficiency that was specified. For real estate owners, the takeaway is straightforward: specify performance, verify it at handover, and make sure performance is transparent during operation. 

How can monitoring and digital services help real estate owners and tenants day to day? 

Monitoring makes performance visible, and that is valuable for different stakeholders. Real estate owners can track energy use and detect deviations early. Tenants and occupants can gain confidence in air quality and comfort, especially when information is presented at the right level. You do not want to overwhelm end users with technical detail, but you do want clear indicators and transparency. At the same time, large organisations are understandably cautious about external access to their networks, so solutions must be designed with cybersecurity and data governance in mind. 

Climate change is increasing the need for cooling in many regions. What does that mean for air handling? 

Cooling and humidity control will become more important, and the capacity required to deliver comfort can be significant during hot periods. Humidity is often the more complex part: to remove moisture you may need to cool the air below the dew point and then reheat it, which can surprise people. This is why we need smarter, more efficient strategies, such as well-designed dehumidification concepts and indirect/adiabatic solutions, so comfort does not come with unnecessary energy use. 

Looking ahead five years, where do you see the biggest opportunities to improve building performance? 

We will see a higher share of units delivered with advanced controls and monitoring, and products will become more intelligent in how they support reliable operation. In parallel, retrofit will grow. Many customers want to reduce energy use but do not want, or cannot justify, replacing everything. Upgrading existing units, for example by improving fans, controls and heat recovery, can be a practical path to better performance and lower lifecycle cost.