BUILDING AIR QUALITY

IMPROVEMENT AND PROTECTION SYSTEM

Healey & Associates has developed a system capable of improving and protecting the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in existing Commercial, Institutional and Industrial (C&I) buildings. The approach consists of adding a dedicated "Outdoor Air (OA) pre-treatment system" with appropriate Components and Controls to the fresh air intake of buildings to pre-condition the outdoor (fresh) air that enters the building. The Outdoor Air System, originally developed to address one of the major causes of poor air quality inside buildings, mold and mildew resulting from moisture and high humidity levels, has been reconfigured and refined to reduce the vulnerability of buildings to threats from external air borne contamination including smoke or toxic releases.

Once the OA System, consisting of a filtration system, cooling/heating coils, dampers, associated controls and components, is installed, all outdoor air entering a building would be pre-conditioned (filtered, dehumidified etc.). The OA system would be designed to pressurize the building or selected area and eliminate the entry of unconditioned, outdoor air into the building. The System would serve to reduce the moisture levels in the building, one of the primary causes of poor IAQ in existing buildings, as well as the load on the existing HVAC System. The removal of the moisture load would permit the supply air temperature to be raised (temperature reset), and the heating (for humidity control) to be reduced, providing better humidity control and an economic benefit by virtue on an energy reduction. Implementation of such a system can provide an energy cost savings that will repay the cost of the installation over time by virtue of a reduction in the cooling load on the buildings HVAC Equipment and a reduction or elimination of the Outdoor Air load during unoccupied times.

While the specific economics will vary from project to project, the long-term economics will generally be positive, essentially providing a payback for a project that addresses a multitude of health and safety problems. At the present time, it simply is not possible to seal the buildings to protect the occupants from a threat (smoke or toxic emissions) from the outside air. Additionally, numerous buildings are presently suffering from reported IAQ problems resulting from high humidity levels. The approach developed by Healey & Associates is designed to help address both of these problems. The recommended system is not intended to take the place of a full scale building renovation to address IAQ problems, rather it is designed as a method of quickly addressing one of the major causes of poor IAQ (high humidity levels-mold and mildew) and providing a means of minimizing, and reacting to, contaminants external to the building in a cost effective and complimentary manner.

Numerous IAQ investigations have been conducted, and remediation projects developed, only to be delayed because of the magnitude of the costs and the disruption the remedial work would create to the functioning of a C&I Building. This approach, that can be implemented without disruption to the building or its occupants, is designed to address IAQ Health and Safety problems in such a way as to complement long range solutions to the problems while reducing (to some extent) operating costs of the HVAC system. The "OA System" can be installed with very little disruption to a building’s operation, provide an immediate improvement in indoor air quality, and a reduction of the vulnerability of a building to contaminants or threats from outside the building.

If your building has humidity problems or there are concerns over the possibility of airborne contamination from the outdoors, the system as described in this paper that has been installed in numerous healthcare and government facilities may be useful in your building. Contact Henry Healey, P.E., President of Healey & Associates (healey@flaenergy.com) for additional information.