HVAC and Air Purification | Gateway Mechanical

HVAC & Air Purification

Your HVAC system plays a big role in the quality and purity of your air.

Regular maintenance, proper operation, filter changes, and UV and/or Plasma air purification all work collectively within your HVAC system to clean the air you breathe.

Since the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, many of our customers have been asking us what they can do to control the transmission and kill airborne pathogens and viruses with their HVAC System.

Although transmission and prevention cannot be solved by an HVAC solution alone, purifying the air you breathe is a proven tactic for supporting the overall health and wellness of your facility’s occupants.

ASHRAE recommends the following strategies for improving air quality within your facilities.

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UV & Plasma Air Purifiers

UVC & Plasma disinfection systems complement conventional filtration by addressing those microorganisms that are small enough to pass through filters.

Upper-air UVC & plasma fixtures can destroy those microbes when they are exposed to UVC & plasma in a matter of seconds killing up to 99.9 percent on a first-pass basis with concentrations further reduced each time the air circulates.

Surface-cleaning UVC systems can provide 24/7 irradiation of HVAC/R components to destroy bacteria, viruses, and mold that settle and proliferate on coils, air filters, ducts, and drain pans, preventing the growth of pathogens that can eventually become airborne and circulated by your HVAC system.

Although UVC is effective in killing other varieties of coronaviruses, such as SARS and MERS, scientists do not yet know about the impact of UV-C on COVID-19.

Because the susceptibility to germicidal UV of any microorganism is determined by its genome sequence, the germicidal UV dose required to kill the COVID-19 virus is practically the same as the SARS-CoV (2003) coronavirus within less than 1.6% variance. Therefore it is assumed that UV can kill the COVID-19 virus but this has yet to be proven.

Air purifiers inside HVAC cannot disinfect frequently touched surfaces such as door handles and light switches, which are common disease transmission path. Given that the Coronavirus can survive up to nine days on a surface, good hygiene practice and frequent wash of hands continue to be the safest way to protect ourselves against any airborne or surface contaminants that can be introduced by other occupants and dispersed by the HVAC system in the building.

In other words, a powerful UVC air purifier can reduce the possibility of spreading contaminants through the HVAC system, but it does not eliminate the necessity of safe hygiene practices.

Filters

Filters are used to trap particulates and sub-micron contaminants that could affect your health like, dust and dirt, pollen, mold and mold spores, fibers and lint, hair and animal fur, bacteria and microorganisms.

High-efficiency particulate air or HEPA filters are used in critical care environments and are 99.97 percent effective at trapping particles down to 0.3 microns, however, viruses like the coronavirus are very small and the likelihood of them passing through the filtration system is high.

Ventilation

Because small particles remain airborne for some period of time, the design and operation of HVAC systems that move air can affect disease transmission in several ways.

Supplying clean air to susceptible occupants
Containing contaminated air and/or exhausting it to the outdoors.
Diluting the air in a space with cleaner air from outdoors and /or by filtering the air.
Cleaning the air within the room

A simple approach to lowering the concentrations of indoor air pollutants is to increase the amount of clean outdoor air coming into your facility by adjusting your make up air.