Is keeping your air quality healthy making your budget sick?

In today's commercial buildings, more and more attention is being paid to maintaining greener, more sustainable structures. Builders are focusing on reducing the overall carbon footprint, while also providing a healthy, comfortable environment. Energy consumption is a big factor in carbon footprints and HVAC systems use the most energy in commercial buildings. They are also the systems relied upon for maintaining comfort and air quality. Achieving indoor air quality standards with conventional HVAC systems can also result in significantly higher operating costs. Air Quality Standards and Outdoor Air Circulation To ensure acceptable air quality within a building, certain codes have been developed (ASHRAE 62.1) and adopted which require a percentage of the air that is provided to building occupants contain a mix of outdoor air. This is to help control gaseous elements, VOCs, (volatile organic compounds) and odors from rising to uncomfortable, irritating levels. The outside air helps to dilute these gasses, much like opening a window. This is especially necessary as we strive to build tighter and more energy efficient buildings that don't allow our buildings to "breathe" naturally. Many buildings actually over-ventilate with respect to minimum code requirements. A statistical survey by the Aircuity Corp. showed that 76% of existing buildings are over-ventilated. Why would a building owner or property manager over-ventilate? Many do not realize they are over-ventilated. The building is running smoothly, the occupants aren't complaining, the old "if it ain't broke don't fix it" attitude prevails. Other buildings have antiquated systems and controls that won't allow for precise outside air control. In addition, some buildings are purposely over-ventilated to address a past or present air quality or odor issue. Increased Outdoor Air = Increased HVAC Energy Costs One key factor that is overlooked is that the more outdoor air brought in, the higher the building HVAC energy costs. This is because the untreated outside air needs to be heated, cooled, dehumidified, etc, in order to meet comfort guidelines. This uses HVAC energy. Using less untreated outside air and using more treated comfortable air that can be re-circulated can reduce HVAC energy costs. The USEPA recently reported that a reduction of just 10 cfm (cubic feet per minute) per occupant of outdoor air introduced into a building will result is a 5 to 10% reduction in HVAC energy cost. Depending on size and occupancy, these can be significant dollars. While simply reducing outside air ventilation may sound like the simple solution, unfortunately it's not. Reducing outside air ventilation can save energy costs, but it can also create problems, which ultimately can become more costly. The Harvard School of Public Health performed a case study with two identical buildings, except in one of the buildings the outside ventilation was lowered. Their results showed that in the building with lowered outside ventilation, absenteeism increased, occupant complaints increased and productivity decreased. Purify the Air with Bi-Polar Ionization An effective and cost effective solution is to purify the air that circulates through the building. If air can be stripped of contaminants by air purification, then more clean and conditioned air can be re-circulated and less untreated outside air can be used, reducing energy costs. Air purification is nothing new and all HVAC system are equipped with air filters, but these air filters were designed to trap large dust particles and prevent the equipment from becoming dirty and wear prematurely. Many filter manufacturers produce enhanced filtration systems that can capture more and smaller particles and gaseous elements, but these systems will often restrict airflow by their design, producing an energy penalty by their use. A better solution is to consider bi-polar ionization. Bi-polar ionization is cost efficient and environmentally friendly. They enhance particle removal, break down gaseous elements, reduce mold spores and microbials, AND typically use little power and do not restrict airflow. AtmosAir Solutions products use bi-polar ionization and are available as standalone portable units or can easily be integrated into HVAC systems for commercial and industrial buildings, schools, multi-residential and single family homes. Make both your building and your bottom line a lot greener Evaluate your building's situation and take action. Get started today using the steps below. 1. Analyze your actual outdoor ventilation rate. This is likely different from what it was originally designed to be. The outdoor ventilation rate can be easily accomplished by taking CO2 (carbon dioxide) readings in several areas of the building. With this information and using calculations developed by ASHRAE, the data can be translated into your cfm of outside air per occupant. 2. Investigate what air purification strategy can best be incorporated into your existing mechanical system without drastic re-engineering or adding an energy penalty by its use. Bi-polar ionization systems such as AtmosAir Solutions products may be the solution for you. These systems enhance particle removal, break down gaseous elements and typically use little power and do not restrict airflow. 3. Determine the outside air reductions you can achieve, while staying within code requirements and calculate your ROI. Many industry and air quality experts can assist you in this process and perform some of these calculations for you. Also, contact your local utility provider. Many utilities offer rebates and funding for projects aimed to achieve energy reductions. Anthony Abate, CIE, is V.P. of operations for AtmosAir Solutions, Fairfield, Conn.