Facilities Management's teams maintain our building's critical air-conditioning and ventilation systems throughout the year. We have over 1,400 buildings on the Davis campus and they perform well, however, each building performs differently based on its age, the equipment in the building and critical human factors — we cannot stress enough the importance of keeping doors and windows closed when it's smoky outdoors.

A common complaint we receive during a wildfire events is that the air smells smoky. Indoor air will commonly smell of smoke during a wildfire event, but when we test it, we find it’s consistently better (i.e., containing lower particulate matter) than being outdoors due to the filtration systems in place on the building ventilation systems.

During smoke events we:

• Monitor HVAC performance
  Many of our buildings have air conditioning and ventilation systems and we monitor their operation during an event.
• Replace air filters
  We replace air filters on a schedule throughout the year, but may need to swap them sooner during prolonged smoke events.
• Recirculate indoor air
  Wherever we can, we recirculate indoor air. This isn’t possible in some spaces, like a laboratory, which require fresh (i.e., outdoor) air. Toggle the list below to learn more about which currently occupied buildings' indoor air is recirculated during a smoke event.

Buildings Where Indoor Air is Recirculated During a Smoke Event