Measuring heat stress in the workplace

Prevent harmful heat stress at the workplace.
Protect your health with the reliable AeroGuard

KNMI recently introduced the heat stress index: a new index that indicates how stressful outdoor heat is for your body. Indoors, factors such as the Heat Index determine how well you function and how healthy you remain. The AeroGuard continuously measures this Heat Index and tells you whether your working environment is safe. “With this air quality monitor, you can see at a glance how the heat stress develops in your workspace.”

The KNMI heat stress index combines temperature, humidity, solar radiation, and wind into a single figure. This gives you a better understanding of how warm it truly feels outside; 25 degrees Celsius doesn't always feel the same. Even at moderate temperatures, heat can cause problems, for example, with high humidity. Knowing the heat stress index allows you to anticipate it.

Indoors, at work, you also need to know how strenuous the conditions are for your body. The number on your thermometer gives you only a little information. With the AeroGuard, you measure temperature and humidity simultaneously.
The device then shows you the Heat Index: the heat index for indoor spaces. This way, you know exactly how strenuous the conditions at your workplace are for your body.

Highlights of this blog:
  • It is important to know how high the Heat Index is at your workplace: the indoor heat index.
  • Temperature alone gives you an incomplete, misleading picture.
  • A heat index that is too high causes (invisible) complaints such as headaches, reduced
    concentration and fatigue. Motivation and productivity quickly decrease.
  • The AeroGuard air quality monitor tells you in real-time how safe your working environment is, thanks to 12 essential parameters.
  • With the AeroGuard, you protect yourself and your colleagues against dangerous heat stress in the workplace.

Where is measuring thermal power essential?
  • Production halls and factories, where machines and processes generate heat
  • Kitchens and catering environments, high temperatures combined with steam and humidity
  • Warehouses and distribution centers, often large spaces without adequate cooling
  • Gyms and sports halls, intensive activity under varying conditions
  • Barracks and emergency services, employees who have to work in heavy clothing
  • Offices without air conditioning, underestimated during warm periods, but certainly relevant
  • Construction sites and workshops, partly outdoors, partly indoors, always physically demanding

Why temperature alone is not enough

At high humidity, your body is less able to dissipate heat through sweating. This also applies to the workplace: in a poorly ventilated production hall, a warehouse without air conditioning or windows, or a crowded office space, humidity rises quickly. The heat stress can then reach a dangerous level for your health, even though you don't see it on the thermometer. The temperature alone therefore gives you an incomplete and misleading picture.

These are the risks of high heat exposure
in the workplace

At high heat stress, you make more mistakes, work slower, and are less motivated. Productivity decreases, while you (even as an employer) don't immediately notice it.

Excessive heat stress has serious consequences:

Short-term effects: fatigue, headaches, reduced concentration, dizziness, nausea, muscle cramps, and in severe cases, heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

Long-term consequences of structural exposure to high heat stress: increased risk of cardiovascular complaints, kidney function impairment, and deteriorated mental well-being.

Plymovent expert David Boreel speaks:

Work safely with the AeroGuard HeatIndex

How does the AeroGuard measure the heat stress at your workplace? David Boreel, Operations Manager at Plymovent, explains:


David: "The monitor continuously measures
the temperature and the relative humidity, and from these, it calculates the Heat Index: the actual indoor heat stress. This figure provides a realistic picture of how challenging the conditions are for your body and how comfortably and effectively you can work."

Through the accompanying app, you can see at a glance how the heat stress in your workspace is developing.

David: "You can also set thresholds that suit your situation. Do you work in a production hall where people do heavy physical work? Then you'll want to be warned sooner than in an office. With the premium dashboard, you can optimize the settings per room and per situation."

If the Heat Index exceeds a critical limit, you receive an immediate notification. The AeroGuard can also automatically activate a ventilation or climate control system for you.
This way, you can focus on your work without worries.

"Customers don't always recognize heat stress and its associated consequences as a problem"

Heat Stress and Air Quality: Both Are At Least As Important!

High heat stress indoors not only affects your health at work. In warm, poorly ventilated spaces, CO₂ levels, particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) also rise.
Elevated levels of these substances lead to fatigue, loss of concentration, and headaches. These complaints are often wrongly attributed to the heat, whereas high concentrations of hazardous substances may be the actual cause. It is important to understand this distinction so that you can take the right measures and ensure a safe, healthy working environment.  

David Boreel explains: "The KNMI heat stress index shows that temperature alone does not tell enough about healthy conditions. This applies outdoors, but certainly also indoors. We regularly see that when customers experience the first complaints, such as fatigue, errors, and reduced output, they do not recognise heat stress as a problem. The combination of an elevated temperature and high humidity is simply not visible. As a result, increased strain on employees often goes unnoticed for unnecessarily long. The AeroGuard makes this heat stress visible. So that people can function
as you would expect."

Where is measuring heat output essential?

The AeroGuard gives you a
complete picture of the air quality at your workplace. It measures 12 essential
parameters that determine whether the air at your workplace is healthy and safe:

  • Temperature
  • Relative humidity
  • Heat Index: the indoor heat stress
  • Particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5, PM4, PM10)
  • Carbon dioxide (CO₂)
  • Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
  • Sound level
  • Air pressure
  • General indoor air quality (IAQ)

Want to know more?

Learn more about the AeroGuard and order the unit easily via this page . Want to know more about Plymovent? Visit www.plymovent.com