neil

IAQ-Office

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As measurement of indoor air quality (IAQ) parameters have gotten better, faster and cheaper we’ve taken advantage of this to instrument our offices.

Read more to see why everyone should care about IAQ.

You’re looking at data from our office in Medford, Oregon. The data is sent to our servers every 5 minutes. (refresh page to see newest data)

Carbon Dioxide (CO2):

Particulates:

  • We are measuring PM2.5 which in our case is the weight (micrograms) of particles less than 2.5 microns per cubic meter
  • These small particles (from diesel, smoke, etc) are particularly bad for us because they make their way into our lungs and are hard to expel
  • Kitchen activity (frying, searing, burning fuel) are also big contributors to indoor particulates
  • If you have low levels of particulates, you’re probably cleaning the air of aerosols. Aerosols are the primary vector for air borne viruses (think influenza, colds, covid) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8721651/
  • How we fixed our particulate problems
    • MERV13 filters on all outside air coming into ERVs and HRVs
    • MERV13 filters on all air handlers
    • CR style filter boxes situated throughout the building
    • HEPA filtration units
    • Make sure that you have good kitchen exhaust to reduce particulates from cooking

What can you do ?

Footnote on ERVs and HRVs

  • The smart way to fix CO2 problems is to use Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERVs) or Heat Recovery Ventilators (HRVs)
  • You can also just open a window, but this will lead to loss of conditioned air
  • ERVs and HRVs minimize loss of conditioned air by recovering the heat or cool, while still bringing in fresh and filtered air

Note on our measurements

We measure particulates and carbon dioxide levels (inside and outdoors). A thorough analysis of air would include volatile organics (VOC’s) and other pollutants, which is beyond the scope of our measurements. If you have good values for CO2 and particulates, and you don’t live next to an airport or other concentrated pollution source, your other IAQ values will most likely be just fine.

Going Electric At Our Warehouse

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We are always looking for ways to minimize our carbon and environmental footprint, and we found a big one at our warehouse in New York State.

Prior to purchasing the warehouse it was heated with furnaces fed by large propane storage tanks on the property. There was no cooling. Heating large spaces in a cold climate is very energy intensive. If we wanted to add cooling, our energy costs would be headed in the wrong direction.

Stage 1: Problem Analysis & Potential Solutions

Propane is one of the more expensive fuels out there, since it has to be delivered by truck. The goal was to use electricity and going down that path led us to heat pumps (hey we sell them !) and we did the math on making our own electricity. Solar panels are relatively inexpensive and have an excellent ROI (return on investment).

We adopted a multi stage plan to first reduce our carbon footprint and then make sure our costs were equal to less than the “fossil approach”.

Stage 2: Install Heat Pumps

Installing the air handlers.

Note the oversized filter box.

Completed heat pumps

It snows a lot in this part of the country, so we built snow covers.

Stage 3: Get a New Roof

It makes sense to get a new roof, when you’re installing 30 year lifetime solar panels. Thank You to the folks at S.D. Carruthers Roofing for doing a great job on the roof and adding an extra layer of high R-value polyisocyanurate insulation underneath.

Stage 4: Get Solar

Once we finalized our requirements and got approval from the utility, the 120 kW of solar panels went in.

Conclusions:

  • CO₂ avoided
    • Solar electric is about as “home grown” as it gets. Although one may argue about the embodied energy in producing the panels, there will be 20-30 years of no carbon from our warehouse operations. The box shows our first 8 months of CO₂ saved.
  • Indoor Air Quality
    • Warehouses suffer from dust from cardboard operations. Our own filter boxes were installed on each air handler to allow for good filtration (MERV13) and long intervals between filter changes (6 months)
  • Comfort
    • Heating performance with the heat pumps has been as good as the propane furnaces.
    • Since we added cooling (free with heat pumps), summer comfort has been much improved.
  • Cost Savings
    • Great ROI on the system.
    • Zero electrical costs for 6-8 months, with dramatically lower bills anticipated for winter

Acknowledgements

Genie Solar: Great job at offering options and providing guidance on incentives.

3rd Roc Solar: Great install and responsive to any issues.

USDA: Thank You very much for the REAP grant.

Peter Caldwell (Great Electrician)

Thomas Brunet (Consultant)

Technical Notes:

Demand Charges: Although we will make enough electricity from the solar panels for our needs, commercial electrical rates include something called demand charges. We have had to distribute our electrical usage over a 24 hour period to avoid much of this. In particular, we actually heat at night to avoid turning on all our heat pumps simultaneously.

More information: If you would like to explore your path to “energy indepence” please contact me at www.hvacquick.com (ask for Neil Smith)

Summer Cooling Tips

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We love houses, and so do our friends at Redfin – the very cool and informative real estate website. They just published this article , which has some great tips on keeping your house cool this summer.

Keeping you cool, while saving energy – that’s a core part of our business, so we’re happy to see our partner at AirScape’s tip mentioned. And what do you know ? They suggested whole house fans.

To HEPA or not to HEPA – no question !

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The following article from the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene makes a compelling case for adding HEPA filtration to indoor environments in order to greatly reduce the chance of Covid spread.

The article has a couple of important points.

Based on their model, an office worker has a 40% chance of contracting Covid when sharing an office with an infected worker “Even with use of N95 masks in this scenario” after 1 week of exposure !

By combining HEPA filtration (12 Air Change per Hour – 12 ACH), the probability of contracting Covid from the office environment over a 6 month period drops to 0.003%.

Publication Cover

Conclusion: Use HEPA filtration in indoor environments in this time of panemic, and continue to use to avoid other airborne pathogens.

High Performance Room HEPA Filter Unit

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If you’ve been following our blog entries about viruses, micropdroplets, and Covid-19, or just reading the news, you’re coming to the conclusion that air filtration is getting to be very important.

It’s important to cut the “viral load” or amount of viruses that one is exposed to, and micro droplets that can contain Covid can remain aloft for up to 10 hours.

Masking and source capture (see our blog on dental aerosols) are good ideas, but there are many reasons why we still want to filter our air. Masks are not 100% effective (nothing is), and people make mistakes.

Just the facts: Why Filtration?

  • Masks are not 100% effective
  • People are not 100% effective at masking
  • Microdroplets stay in the air for up to 10 hours
  • Toilets can be a source of pathogens (including Covid 19)

Just the facts: What does my filtration system need to do ?

  • Capture microdroplets and viruses
  • Have airflow capable of 12 + air changes per hour (12 ACH)
  • Filtered air should flow from high to low
  • Have directed vents to avoid stagnant areas
  • Be quiet
  • Efficient
Clean air should be delivered high and returned low to the unit.

How to calculate required airflow

Airflow in cubic feet per minute (CFM) = # Air changes per hour (ACH) x Room Volume / 60

Example: Conference room 10’x20’x12′, with desired 12 ACH. CFM = 12 x (10x20x12) / 60 = 480 CFM

Specifications

  • 2 Sizes: 500 CFM and 900 CFM
  • Low power use: 128 watts and 164 watts
  • Footprint of 18″ x 26″ x 72″ high (with casters)
  • Prefilter MERV11 with carbon impregnation
  • HEPA H13 (EU standard) 99.95% efficient, with individual test certificate.
  • HEPA is 24″x24″ x 12″ deep. This means it has a lot of holding capacity.
  • Electronically commutated motor (ECM), very efficient
  • Full range speed control with no motor hum (it’s ECM)
  • Customizable discharge: Front, Side, Top

Availability and Cost

  • We have a few of our initial batch available
  • We’re taking reservations for units to be ready in 6 weeks.
  • Check www.hvacquick.com for updated price and availability.

Dental Treatment Room (Operatory) Aerosol Removal Part II

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The best way to remove aerosols created by dental procedures is to create a stream of air focused close to the source. Source capture as it’s known is more efficient since we’re pulling a concentrated source of contaminants. Each unit of air that you are paying for “works harder” in this manner.

From this point, there are 2 choices: exhaust the air, or recirculate it. Here’s a list of pros/cons for each system.

PROCON
ExhaustNo worries about viral and other contaminants being spread inside
Exhausts conditioned air
Requires Installation
Very Quiet
Can be designed with lots of airflow to provide a purge between patients
RecirculationRequires expensive HEPA filters
More expensive
No Installation Required

The system shown below exhausts to the outdoors.

Typical Aerosol Exhaust System Installed in Attic or Interstitial Space (click image to expand)

Let’s go through the parts starting from the intake (left to right):

  • Intake cone: A plastic cone to pull aerosol from around the patient’s mouth
  • Self supporting flex duct: Typically a 4″ diameter flexible duct that “self supports” – holds its last position
  • Thimble: This is just a neat way to allow the inside duct to be removed and cleaned without system disassembly
  • Flexible insulated duct: This duct has a plastic liner and can be easily installed
  • Filter box: The CFB-6-OS contains a prefilter and a MERV15 filter. Even though we’re exhausting outdoors, it’s good practice to remove most of the particulates. The MERV15 filter is in the range of a N95 face mask.
  • Inline fan: We really like this powerful fan that is capable of high static pressure (sucking ability) and high flow (CFM or cubic feet per minute). The fan can be adjusted for flow for two modes: a) Patient aerosol removal b) Room purge between patients [VERY USEFUL AND PROBABLY WILL BE CODE MANDATED]

References

More Information

New Filtration Products Part 3

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One Big Reason to Get a HEPA Filter

Panorama of a hilly expanse featuring a large smoke trail covering more than half of the visible sky.
 

HEPA filters stop the vast majority (99.7%) of airborne particles greater than 0.3 microns. Most of the time, you’ll never need a filter that stops even smoke particles, but when you do, we have what you need.

The CFB-HP is a filter box that is meant to be used with an external fan. We also have several HEPA filter/fan combination boxes, but here’s a few reasons why you would use an external fan:

  • You want to distribute air evenly throughout your house or office
  • Very low sound levels (talk to us about how to do this)
  • When paired with an EC (electronically commutated fan), the energy use drops dramatically
  • You may want to direct the clean air or filter air from a particular room or area
  • This filter box works well with HRV’s
  • To avoid smoke infiltration during smoke situations, one strategy is to pull outside air through this HEPA filter and pressurize your house with clean air.

As always, please feel free to call our technical sales people for any application assistance. 888-855-7229 or email us at sales@hvacquick.com.

 

New Filtration Products Part 2

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We designed the  CFB series of inline filter boxes to do the following:

  • Oversized 4″ deep MERV 13 filter
  • Easy removal of filter
  • Low pressure drop with conical transition

HVACQuick CFB Series MERV-13 Inline Filter Boxes

 

New Filtration Products Part 1

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Over the past 2 years we’ve been building filtration products, so maybe it’s time to announce them…

The first unit we have is our IFB series. This “Inline Filter Box” has a MERV6 filter and is meant for general purpose filtration.  MERV6 is considered a “better residential” level of filtration. [Here’s a good overview of MERV levels]

HVACQuick IFB Series Inline Filter Boxes

This filter box is commonly used for filtering incoming fresh air to a furnace or air handling unit. If desired, we can provide inline fans all the way from 100 CFM past 1200 CFM.

An Investment in Green Packaging

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If there’s one thing that’s true about being an online retailer, it’s that you go through an incredible amount packaging material. That’s always been a sore spot for us here at HVACquick, considering our commitment to being as environmentally friendly as possible—it’s more likely than not all that packaging ends up in a landfill somewhere. It’s something of a comfort that cardboard boxes are actually pretty green (since so much of them come from recycled paper), but still, we can’t afford (as either a business or as environmental citizens) to be constantly replacing products damaged in transit to our customers. Thus, every day, we use a huge amount of bubble wrap and similar padding, which generally cannot be recycled.

Our (very large) Cardboard Dumpster

Given how much packaging we go through, you might expect our dumpster to be pretty big as well. It is not. We use only the smallest-sized commercial garbage dumpster; our commingled recycling dumpster is quite a bit larger, and our dedicated cardboard dumpster is even larger yet. We send approximately 7 cubic yards of cardboard to the recyclers every week. To get an idea of just how big a volume this is, consider that the largest residential garbage collection in our area (and probably in yours) is 96 gallons. That’s slightly less than 1/2 of a cubic yard, or less than 1/14th the volume of our cardboard dumpster!

We’re much happier to be recycling all that cardboard than sending to the dump, but, according to the Three R’s, it would be better for us to reduce that amount or find a way to reuse it. Almost all our waste cardboard comes from the boxes of items sent to us, which means we can’t easily “reduce” its volume, and we can’t send our customers their purchases in reused boxes, so recycling has always seemed the best we could do. It was an interesting day in the office, then, when one of our engineers ran the numbers and figured out we recycle a greater volume of cardboard each week than we use of bubble wrap. If only there were a way to turn our waste cardboard into something we could use in place of bubble wrap . . . .

Our new shredder
Our new Shredder

It turns out there is! A number of companies manufacture shredders that can turn flat sheets of cardboard into packaging fill. We’ve recently invested in one, and are beginning to “reuse” our waste cardboard boxes by turning them into a substitute for bubble wrap.

The advantages to this are almost too many to name here. Firstly, we’re saving money by no longer needing to pay for so much bubble wrap or cardboard disposal. Secondly, we’re replacing bubble wrap with something more environmentally sound. The paper in cardboard ultimately comes from trees, which are not only a renewable resource, but consume carbon as they grow. On the other hand, the plastic out of which bubble wrap is made comes from dirty petrochemicals (BAD!). Finally, once our customers have received their packages, the cardboard can be easily recycled, whereas bubble wrap cannot.

We’re very excited about this new development and hope you are as well. When you receive your first package with our new cardboard fill material, please make sure to reuse it in your own shipments or recycle it at your local recycling center.

Shredded Cardboard Packaging Fill
Shredded Cardboard Packaging Fill