Engineered Systems - December 2008 - (Page 14)

CaseInPoint UV and a filter overhaul team up to clean up IAQ in Miami Miami’s South Beach is the epitome of chic. Its fabulous beaches, trendy restaurants, Art Deco hotels, and pulsating nightclubs attract throngs of locals and tourists alike. But there are other elements — largely unseen, but often felt in the air — attracted by the area’s humid climate: mold, spores, and bacteria, as well as airborne contaminants. Walter Chung noticed it. As the assistant property manager and chief engineer for the SunTrust building on Lincoln Road in the heart of South Beach, it’s his job to pick up issues that affect the eight-story concrete ofﬁce building, its tenants, and the approximately 350 people who work there. DIRTY A/C COIL CREATES PROBLEMS UAI Management LLC, for whom Chung works, had purchased the SunTrust building three years earlier. They wanted to make sure that the building’s air-handling system produced and circulated clean, fresh air, and operated at peak efﬁciency. When he took a look at its ﬁlters and coil, he quickly realized that there were problems. “It was really nasty,” he said of the old Roll-O-Matic ﬁlter system with an oil base that was located on the roof of the building. Fourteen feet in height and 30 to 40 ft around, the ﬁlter was dirty. “It was old and messy and it rolled down unevenly,” Chung said, adding that the A/C coil was moldy as well. To Chung, this discovery made sense. After all, the air inside the SunTrust building never seemed quite right to him. There was a slightly musty odor and the dust was everywhere. The coil and ﬁlter were cleaned twice a year, but it wouldn’t be long before mold would reappear. Chung estimates that his annual coil cleaning cost was $8,000 to $10,000. The tenants, which range from the headquarters for MTV Latin America, law ofﬁces, and an advertising ﬁrm to dentist ofﬁces, an architecture ﬁrm, and a casting company as well as SunTrust bank, didn’t complain, but Chung recognized that they had probably gotten used to poor IAQ. They took little notice to the dust and particulate matter that settled on the walls and the furniture because the cleaning crew took care of the mess after hours. For Chung, a continuous cycle of cleaning the air-handling system that could not get the crisp, clean air that he wanted was not good enough. There had to be another solution. ULTRAVIOLET LAMPS TO IMPROVE AIR QUALITY? He visited the South Florida Facilities Expo to explore what type of ﬁlters and ﬁlter system might work best for the SunTrust building. That’s where he met Daryl McIntosh, the owner of A-One Filters and Josee Osborne of Sanuvox Technologies. After speaking with McIntosh and Osborne, it was clear to Chung that his building needed more than new ﬁlters. A series of high-performance ﬁlters would take away the airborne contaminants, but what would eliminate the mold, bacteria and spores? They talked to Chung about ultraviolet (UV) CoilCleaners from Sanuvox. UV CoilCleaners shine on the coil 24/7, destroying bacteria, viruses, mold, chemicals, and its associated odors. “UV technology is highly recommended to keep your coils clean and eliminate bacteria ﬂoating in the air. With this, they can have 99.99% clean air,” said McIntosh. “It helps reduce sickness in the workplace, plus there are savings on energy costs.” 14 En gi neer ed S y stem s December 2008 Five rows of four, 40-in UV lamps were installed from top to bottom in front of the return side of the A/C coil in this South Beach building, saving up to $10,000 in coil-cleaning costs. In fact, several studies have concluded that ultraviolet lamps kill germs and other bacteria in ventilation systems. The Lancet Medical Journal published the ﬁndings of McGill University scientists in which shining ultraviolet puriﬁers manufactured by Sanuvox Technologies on air conditioning coils reduced overall sickness by 20%, reduced respiratory symptoms by 40% and resulted in a 99% reduction of microbial and endotoxin concentrations on irradiated surfaces within the ventilation system. Chung didn’t know about these studies. He had some experience with UV lights as a way to eliminate algae from pools and promote plant life in ponds, but he did not expect that such technology could improve the IAQ of his building. HIGH-EFFICIENCY FILTERS + UV TECHNOLOGY Knowing that UAI Management LLC wanted its building to be a ﬁrst-class facility in every respect, Chung invited Sanuvox; the Filtration Group, the manufacturer of ﬁlters; and A-One Filters, which installs systems, to take a look for themselves. The team photographed and inspected the exterior of the eightstory concrete building as well as the 140,000 sq ft of interior space to determine how the outside environment affected the indoor air.

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Engineered Systems - December 2008

Engineered Systems - December 2008 Contents Editor's Note HVAC Challenge Back2Basics Case In Point Commissioning Building Automation HVACR Designer Tips Applications Checklist Lakefront Library: Radiant Systems Meet Natural Ventilation Before (And After) The Flood Basics For Refrigerant Chillers Wire-To-Shaft Efficiency For HVAC Pumps Products Glossary Classifieds Advertiser Index Tomorrow’s Environment

Engineered Systems - December 2008

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