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Archive for the ‘Monitoring Indoor Air Quality’ Category
Friday, July 23rd, 2010
We recently came across a My FM Space blog post that noted 92 percent of organizations are working to make facilities more sustainable. The Global Facility Management Association’s Green Practices Study also revealed that 85 percent of facility managers have implemented energy efficient practices, and 74 percent have specifically adjusted operating hours of HVAC systems to do so. While energy is just one aspect of sustainability, 71 percent of those surveyed were wary of the cost associated with energy efficient initiatives.
One option facility managers on a budget have is to integrate an IAQ monitoring system with demand-controlled ventilation (DCV) into a building’s HVAC capabilities. The concept is simple – only ventilate a room or building when it’s needed. Specifically, an intelligent indoor air quality (iAQ) monitor can signal fans or ventilation systems when volatile organic compounds (VOCs) reach unhealthy levels. What’s the big deal about VOCs, you ask?
A room’s occupants judge the quality of the air not just by how it feels (temperature and humidity), but also by how it smells. Unfortunately, odors in offices, kitchens, gymnasiums and restrooms, for example, do not alter CO2 levels measured by most indoor air quality monitors. Plus, high levels of VOCs can cause health problems like headaches, dizziness or nausea.
In one real-life example, our iAQ module was integrated into an air handling unit. The entire system was installed in a gymnasium to monitor the quality of the facility’s air and control the speed of the air handling unit’s fan. Before the iAQ module was installed, the air handling unit was time-controlled, so the gymnasium was ventilated even when it was unoccupied. By switching to DCV, energy consumption was reduced by a whopping 60 percent. This boost in energy efficiency can help facility managers adopt sustainability practices and keep occupants happy without breaking the bank.
Tags: Demand-Controlled Ventilation (DCV), energy, energy efficiency, iAQ, VOCs
Posted in Improving Energy Efficiency, Monitoring Indoor Air Quality, Reducing Facility Maintenance Costs | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
Don’t let the title mislead you. Rather than donning our swimsuits and catching some waves, we spent a few days at the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International Conference. This year’s event was once again well attended by real estate companies, building management organizations and suppliers who brought together cutting edge products for building operations and automation. The show floor was a maze of exhibits – from high tech energy savings applications to clean tech products and services. The constant whirlwind of visitors helped make it a successful show.
It was reported that AHSRAE’s 90.1, the energy standard for buildings, is being updated this year and will be released in the fall. The 2010 version will facilitate a 20+ percent increase in energy efficiency over the original 2004 version. While more research on construction materials and building envelope design makes it tougher to gain more energy efficiencies, this opens doors for new techniques and innovative products. Consequently, energy savings encompassed the theme of several technical presentations. Techniques, including advanced ventilation, are in demand as building owners seek new ways to reduce their building’s carbon footprint and improve bottom lines through energy cost savings. VOC reduction remains a priority for a healthier work environment, while VOC detection for demand controlled ventilation enables buildings to reduce energy consumption and control indoor air quality.
Not surprisingly, buildings are the primary consumer of energy worldwide, and it’s for this reason that the federal government developed a vision to reduce building energy consumption 30 percent by 2020. Industry advances like the ones seen at the BOMA conference are what will propel this vision forward. Cheers to energy efficiency and healthy air.
Tags: Demand-Controlled Ventilation (DCV), energy, energy efficiency, iAQ, Trade Show, VOCs
Posted in Improving Energy Efficiency, Monitoring Indoor Air Quality, Trade Show Recaps, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) | No Comments »
Monday, June 28th, 2010
Have you ever asked your kids what they learned in school that day? Somehow, their initial answer tends to be, “Nothing.” Often, a little prying reveals that they did, in fact, learn something new. Perhaps they learned how to solve a difficult arithmetic problem, expanded their vocabulary or found out more about their country’s history. The truth is, children are curious and often eager to learn. Why let poor classroom air quality put a damper on their day?
Poor air quality in classrooms negatively affects academic performance and health – putting both student and teacher at risk. For many school districts, student absences lead to decreased government funding, while teacher absences lead to higher expenses. That’s pretty ironic if you ask us. We conducted a study of a typical classroom in Germany and found that the level of harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the classroom air exceeded healthy threshold limits within minutes after students arrived at 8:00 a.m. and exceeded those limits for the majority of the school day. Occupied classrooms are especially prone to high concentrations of bio-effluents (VOCs from human respiration, transpiration and metabolism). If left unchecked, VOCs can result in a variety of physical symptoms – eye irritation, headache, drowsiness or dizziness. Even though an increase in ventilation of just one-cubic-foot per minute can decrease absentee rates by up to two percent, very few classrooms have indoor air quality (IAQ) monitors. By signaling HVAC systems only when needed, the energy-efficient IAQ sensor helps maintain clean, healthy air so students can learn and teachers can teach.
Tags: children, classroom, health, iAQ, productivity, Safety, VOCs
Posted in Health and Safety, Monitoring Indoor Air Quality, Reducing Facility Maintenance Costs, Schools, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) | No Comments »
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
Hello from the Sensor + Test show in Germany!
It’s been quite a whirlwind over these past two days, and we’ve engaged one busy booth. Not only have we had the chance to showcase our products, visitors have brought to light several new applications and potential product requests.
100 free samples of our Indoor Air Monitor were handed out, and it’s quickly becoming the coolest product at the show. Ok, so maybe that’s an exaggeration, but several people have commented on the monitor’s coolness. Not only is it ideally suited as an educational gift for HVAC companies, it’s also perfect for individual users within their own homes. Many visitors have also expressed a huge interest in Intelligent Air Quality (iAQ) products for demand-controlled ventilation (DCV) since the energy and cost saving potential is so apparent – not to mention the sheer functionality of iAQ. There is also a lot of buzz about standard H2 products like our HLS-440P and HPS-100 hydrogen sensor modules because of their critical role in fuel cell technology.
To all who attended, thank you for making us the leader in the gas sensor community.
Tags: Demand-Controlled Ventilation (DCV), Hydrogen, iAQ, Trade Show
Posted in Future Hydrogen Economy, Improving Energy Efficiency, Monitoring Indoor Air Quality, Reducing Facility Maintenance Costs, Trade Show Recaps | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010
Are you planning to visit Nuremburg, Germany for Sensor + Test 2010 in May? As it’s the leading forum for sensors, measuring and testing technologies worldwide, we’ll be there with new products. Be sure to stop by Stand 331 in Hall 12 where we’re unveiling our new Air Monitor and displaying our iAQ-2000 professional HVAC Air Quality Sensor. So sign up for your free ticket. Until then, here are a few product highlights to pique your interest.
The Indoor Air Monitor:
- Size of a computer memory stick
- Said to be world’s smallest IAQ sensor
- Plugs into USB port
- LED display glows green, yellow or red for good, fair or poor air quality, respectively
- Available for private labeling and distribution
- Now shipping to qualified distributors for retail sale to end users
- Includes one -year warranty
iAQ-2000:
- Sensitive, low-cost solution for detecting poor air quality
- Uses micro-machined metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) technology to detect VOCs
- Highly sensitive and fast responding
- Low power consumption
- Small size for convenient installation
If you can’t make it to Germany, don’t worry – we’ll be blogging from the show to bring you highlights and trends.
Free tickets for Sensor + Test 2010 are available at:
German: http://www.sensor‐test.de/service/sensorticket.php?Fid=50667
English: http://www.sensor‐test.de/service/sensorticket.php?Fid=50667&Spr=en
Tags: health, iAQ, VOCs
Posted in Improving Energy Efficiency, Monitoring Indoor Air Quality, Reducing Facility Maintenance Costs, Upcoming Trade Shows | No Comments »
Friday, March 12th, 2010
Indoor air quality (IAQ) isn’t really a popular topic of discussion around most dinner tables. In fact, we’re pretty sure that many people still don’t realize the impact that IAQ has on health, productivity, education and more. Perhaps if people knew more about it and the impact it may have on their families and friends, they could join the discussion about how to breathe cleaner, healthier air. People spend 90 percent of their time inside – homes, offices, schools, planes, trains and automobiles – but the damaging effects of bad air can be life-threatening. What can you do if you suspect your office has poor indoor air quality? How does poor air quality affect your child at school? What if you live in an apartment? What causes indoor air problems in the first place? Chances are you have a few questions about how IAQ is affecting you personally. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), thoughtful people that they are, has a regularly updated page on their website called The Inside Story: A Guide to Indoor Air Quality. It’s chock-full of useful information that can help you answer any IAQ questions you have. Here’s a highlight from the e-booklet about indoor air and your health:
“Health effects from indoor air pollutants may be experienced soon after exposure or, possibly, years later. Immediate effects may show up after a single exposure or repeated exposures. These include irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, headaches, dizziness, and fatigue. Such immediate effects are usually short-term and treatable. Sometimes the treatment is simply eliminating the person’s exposure to the source of the pollution, if it can be identified. Symptoms of some diseases, including asthma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, and humidifier fever, may also show up soon after exposure to some indoor air pollutants….Other health effects may show up either years after exposure has occurred or only after long or repeated periods of exposure. These effects, which include some respiratory diseases, heart disease, and cancer, can be severely debilitating or fatal. It is prudent to try to improve the indoor air quality in your home even if symptoms are not noticeable….”
Too tired to look through the content? Ask us an IAQ-related question, and we’ll research it for you.
Tags: EPA, health, iAQ, productivity
Posted in Monitoring Indoor Air Quality | No Comments »
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
We recently came across some pretty useful information on the Flagler Organics blog. Their “Cost of an Unheathy Office” post states that:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that: – medical care for major illnesses resulting from indoor air pollution cost more than $1 billion annually – lost productivity from those illnesses cost between $4.7 and $5.4 billion each year – lost productivity and increased sick leave time as a result of indoor-air-quality-related illnesses costs as high as $60 billion per year
We also found the same (uncited) information here and here. After scouring the EPA website, calling around and Googling away, we still can’t find the exact source of these EPA stats. Could you please help us out by letting us know if you’ve found the source?
Thanks in advance!
Tags: EPA, health, iAQ, productivity
Posted in Lend a Hand, Monitoring Indoor Air Quality, Reducing Facility Maintenance Costs | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
AHR Expo, the show for HVAC&R industry professionals, saw a lot of traffic, especially for the first couple of days. Everywhere you turned, people were discussing air quality and VOCs. Since both are becoming such an issue, “source control” was a buzz word uttered by many attendants and exhibitors. Specifically, the term was referred to as a way to minimize the sources of VOCs, particularly in building materials, furnishings and coatings. Since these VOCs are toxic, ventilation rates need to account for their presence. Building automation was also a common theme at the show, as systems integrators brought forth new products to improve connectivity and efficiency in building operations. One such product was the IEQ monitor from BAPI, which is able to sense VOCs. Home automation was another popular theme, including zone control and smart appliances. Web-based devices are also arising within the industry for energy efficiency and at-home monitoring so that power usage may be tracked while residents are away from home.
Tags: iAQ, Source Control, VOCs
Posted in Improving Energy Efficiency, Monitoring Indoor Air Quality, Trade Show Recaps, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) | No Comments »
Friday, January 8th, 2010
“While facility owners and managers may recognize the importance of IAQ, they often do not appreciate how routine design, construction, and operation decisions can result in IAQ problems. Additionally, they may assume that achieving a high level of IAQ is associated with premium costs and novel or even risky technical solutions. In other cases, they may employ individual measures thought to provide good IAQ, such as increased outdoor air ventilation rates or specification of lower emitting materials, without a sound understanding of the actual impacts of these measures or a systematic assessment of IAQ priorities,” says Andrew Persily, PhD and ASHRAE Fellow in his article in Today’s Facility Manager (November 2009 ).(http://www.todaysfacilitymanager.com/articles/iaq-trends-clearing-the-indoor-air-on-improving-iaq.php)
Just in time, ASHRAE’s published a new Indoor Air Quality Guide on best practices for design, construction, and commissioning. You can download a free summary from the ASHRAE website or buy a full summary for $29. The Guide starts shipping this month. (http://www.ashrae.org/publications/page/1936)
Tags: iAQ
Posted in Monitoring Indoor Air Quality, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Saturday, November 14th, 2009
Thanksgiving is right around the corner. For many people, that means loading up on turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes — not to mention the pumpkin pie. For those of you looking to get a head start on your coming new year’s resolutions, joining a gym seems like the perfect option. But before you sign up for another six-month contract, consider the air around you.
Think about it: You’re going to a gym because you want to be healthy. Well, people often breathe in an unhealthy amount of chemicals called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) while in a fitness club. Sweating is a big factor. Pretty ironic. Take a look at this chart of chemical groups that can be found in indoor air. These gases can be released into a facility’s air from building materials, exercise equipment and human metabolism (i.e. sweating).
Talk to your gym staff and make sure they have some kind of indoor air quality module. Your lungs will thank you.
Tags: health and fitness, iAQ, VOCs
Posted in Monitoring Indoor Air Quality | 3 Comments »
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