A recent study conducted by the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), Red Car Analytics (RCA) and the University of Oregon (UO) shows that commercial building operators can reduce the risk of viral spread by more than 25% with two steps: 1) increase ventilation rates by 217%, 2) add in-room filtration units. Unfortunately, most HVAC systems that can handle this increased ventilation and filtration will also dramatically increase HVAC energy usage.
Thankfully, according to the same study, there are higher efficiency HVAC solutions, such as very high efficiency DOAS, that can run efficiently under acute ventilation conditions while using 37% less energy than less efficient HVAC options. To learn more about this study and the ways building operators can adapt their HVAC approaches to foster healthy indoor environments without wasting energy, read the full article on NEEA’s BetterBricks.com.