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CIRCLE ID# 16 ON READER SERVICE CARD OR GO TO HVACPPRODUCTS.COM/MARKET T he Environmental Protection Agency ranks indoor air pollu- tion among the Top 5 environ- mental dangers to the public and identifies it as one of the leading health risks. ASHRAE Standard 62.1: Ventila- tion for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality, is designed to minimize those risks by establishing standards for the amount of ventilation air delivered to each space in a building by heating, ventila- tion and air-conditioning systems. Until recently, delivering fresh air to a space could be accomplished in one of two ways. Natural ventilation uses win- dows and doors to allow air to enter and leave a building. Mechanical ventilation relies on ducts, fans, heating elements, air-conditioning equipment and filters to pull fresh air from outdoor spaces into a building, exhaust stale air and control temperature and humidity indoors. NEW TECHNOLOGY REMOVES MOLECULAR CONTAMINANTS, KEEPS AIR CLEAN Today, a new approach to ventilation provides building owners and facility managers with a third choice — one that captures and removes molecular contaminants from indoor air while in- telligently managing the flow of outside air into a building to meet ASHRAE 62.1 IAQ requirements. This new approach (pollution controlled ventilation or PCV) also reduces the overall energy load on a building. At the heart of the system, a load reduction module acts as a "smart scrubber," replacing costly ventilation control methods with an energy-saving approach that uses the latest advances in controls, materials and chemical en- gineering, and the latest in controls and sensor technology. Rather than operat- ing like a traditional ventilation system and continually bringing in outdoor air to maintain indoor air quality, the load reduction module treats the indoor air by scrubbing out contaminants with sor- bent technology and re-circulating or re- cycling the scrubbed air. This minimizes the load on the HVAC system, signifi- cantly reducing its energy consumption. SORBENTS CAPTURE CONTAMINANTS The scrubbing process takes place in cartridges that contain sorbents, which capture carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde and other molecular contaminants. Embedded sensors continually monitor IAQ, sor- bent performance and system operat- ing conditions to ensure optimal IAQ management. During off-peak hours, typically when occupancy is low, the cartridges are re- generated (heat is used to break the bonds between the molecular contaminant and the substrate), causing the sorbents to release the captured contaminants and exhaust them out of the building. This process can be scheduled, managed and timed for automatic optimized perfor- mance and minimal energy use. TECHNOLOGY MINIMIZES OUTSIDE AIR REQUIREMENTS Meanwhile, electromechanical control of the HVAC system's outside air damper minimizes the amount of outside air ventilation based on energy and air quality considerations. This includes an automatic fail-safe setting in the event of a fire emergency, power outage or mal- function. In addition, built-in electronics and software, including networking for online internet connectivity (Internet of Things), are engineered to control, re- cord and report all aspects of the HVAC load reduction module operation. The benefits of this approach to ventilation are many, beginning with a substantial — more than 30 percent — reduction in peak power load and an average of 20 percent energy cost savings for heating and/or cooling. As a result, the size of equipment can be reduced. For example, a 100,000-square-foot build- ing might require four load-reduction modules, each one capable of reducing the intake of outside air by 60+ percent. Doing so means the building no longer Fresh approach to ventilation minimizes fresh air requirements B Y A M O L J O S H I F h h t BEYOND IAQ This chart demonstrates technology removing molecular contaminants from the air. SOULGEMS/DREAMSTIME