BFC 3153 M&E

ASSINGMENT:

Ventilation and Air Cleaning

Energy Efficiency, Comfort, and Health | Components | Ventilation | Air Infiltration | Natural
Ventilation | Mechanical Ventilation | Basic Furnace Filter | Media Air Cleaners | HEPA Air
Cleaners | Electrostatic Air Filters | Electronic Air Cleaners

Quick Facts
• Ventilation exchanges stale, and sometimes damp inside air with fresh outside air
• New building standards specify that air leaks and windows alone do not provide
sufficient ventilation in most cases due to tighter building practices
• Air to air heat exchangers ( HRV and ERV ) provide ventilation by bringing in fresh air
without losing heating or cooling energy
• Air cleaning devices can not be relied upon alone to clean air in a well sealed home and
must be combined with adequate ventilation to provide quality indoor air

Energy Efficiency, Comfort, and Health

Providing adequate ventilation is part of many building codes and maintains a healthy home by
expelling extra moisture which can lead to mold and mildew growth as well as by expelling
common household allergens and pollutants.It can be combined with highly effective air cleaners
to assure that air is clean enough for highly sensitive people including those with allergies and
asthma, in addition to people at higher risk for respiratory diseases such as children and the
elderly.Energy saving mechanical ventilation methods, such as air to air heat exchangers,
provide fresh air ventilation without bringing in heat or cold from the outside, thereby
maintaining comfortable temperatures without paying a large energy penalty.

Components and Options

Ventilation brings fresh air into the home and expels stale air and some indoor pollutants through
dilution, while air cleaning removes airborne pollutants from indoor air.
Ventilation

There are three ways of bringing air into the home: infiltration, natural ventilation, and
mechanical ventilation. However, only natural and mechanical ventilation bring in fresh air.

Air Infiltration | Natural Ventilation | Mechanical Ventilation

Air Infiltration

In a process known as infiltration, outdoor air flows into the house through openings, joints, and
cracks in walls, floors, and ceilings, and around windows and doors.While it used to be a major
source of ventilation for homes built before the energy crisis of the 1970s, air infiltration is no
longer permitted as the principal source of ventilation.Since it allows pollutants and
unconditioned air to enter the home and since it cannot be controlled, infiltration is neither an
energy efficient nor a healthy form of ventilation.

About 30% of air inside a typical home comes from the crawlspace or basement, due to air leaks
in the floors and ducts.Wind, as well as unbalanced ventilation or warm temperatures inside the
house, cause the house to be negatively pressurized.Driven by the “stack effect”, this negative
pressure draws air in through the lowest part of the house (such as the crawlspace or basement)
and pushes indoor air out of the highest part of the house (such as the attic).

Natural Ventilation

In natural ventilation, air moves through opened windows and doors. Air movement associated
with infiltration and natural ventilation is caused by air temperature differences between indoors
and outdoors and by wind.Until recent new building standards (ASHRAE 62.2), opened
windows were considered to provide sufficient ventilation; now mechanical ventilation is
required to provide about half of the ventilation in the vast majority of homes.

Since they allow pollutants and unconditioned air to enter the home and since people don’t open
windows as often as they should, open windows and doors often do not provide sufficient
ventilation and are less healthy than mechanical ventilation.Except when providing passive
cooling (cooling a home to outside temperatures by opening windows, as opposed to using air
conditioning), natural ventilation is generally less energy efficient than mechanical ventilation
since it wastes energy used to heat or cool inside air.

Mechanical Ventilation

While infiltration and natural ventilation rely on air temperature differences between indoors and
outdoors and on wind to supply ventilation to a building, mechanical ventilation systems use fans
and duct work to continuously remove indoor air and/or distribute filtered and conditioned
outdoor air to strategic points throughout the house.

• Exhaust fans: Usually found in areas exposed to high levels of moisture and fumes (such
as bathrooms and kitchens), exhaust fans can provide quick and focused ventilation to
 certain regions of a homes but are generally not sufficient to provide overall ventilation to
the whole house.

• Air to air heat exchange: Also known as heat recovery ventilation, air to air heat
exchange is a ventilation system that employs a counter-flow heat exchanger between the
inbound and outbound air flow.
o Heat Recovery Ventilator: provides fresh air and improved climate control, while
also saving energy by reducing the heating (or cooling) requirements
o Energy Recovery Ventilator: closely related to HRV, this type of mechanical
ventilation also transfers the humidity level of the exhaust air to the intake air

Examples include:

• Fantech
• Lifebreath
• UltimateAir® RecoupAerator®
• Venmar

Air Cleaning

Air cleaning uses either filtration or electric charge to remove particles from the air.

Basic Furnace Filter | Media Air Cleaners | HEPA Air Cleaners | Electrostatic Air Filters |
Electronic Air Cleaners

Basic Furnace Filter

Basic furnace filters are meant to protect air handler fan blades and coils from dust and damage
from debris.They need to be changed regularly to assure proper air flow for HVAC system
efficiency, but do not remove very small particles from the air.These filters are small, typically
only 1” deep.

Media Air Cleaners

These units are generally integrated into the furnace or air handler, in contrast to stand alone
units (such as the most common HEPA filters).Media air cleaners use high efficiency pleated
media to remove larger particles with over 99% efficiency, including many allergens. For
irritants in the spore and pollen size range, they are as effective as HEPA filters. Where they
differ is in their capability to filter out the super small particulates such as bacteria, viruses and
respirable dust.

Media air cleaners are cost effective compared to HEPA filters because the media is usually less
expensive and generally needs to be replaced only once every year. Media filters are typically
less expensive to operate as well because they don’t restrict airflow the way HEPA filters do.As
a result media filters don’t need a supplemental fan to overcome the very high levels of air
resistance that HEPA filters exhibit.
Examples include:

• Aprilaire 4000 Series

• Trane Perfect Fit™ Filters
• Carrier FILCAB

HEPA Air Cleaners

HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) cleaners use high efficiency pleated media to remove
particles. To be designated a HEPA, an air cleaner must remove 99.97% of all particles 0.3
microns (dust and mold spores) in size. Due to high cost, operational complications and other
problems, HEPA units are sometimes seen most often in homes as one-room, portable units.

Most HEPA filters that are integrated into the furnace ducting only filter a portion of the return
air at a time, since such filters cannot keep up with the airflow of the furnace. When media in
these units needs to be replaced, it’s often relatively expensive to do so. Some require charcoal
filters that need to be cleaned frequently. Warranties for HEPA cleaners are normally one to
three years.

Examples include:

• Fantech
• Lifebreath

Electrostatic Air Filters

Based on heating and air conditioning industry standards, electrostatic air filters are not
recognized as true high efficiency air cleaners. However, they are generally recognized as being
more effective than the standard one-inch throw-away filters. Electrostatic air filters depend on
the movement of the air through the filter to give particles a weak electronic charge. Usually,
these models are less than 20% efficient, with some models having efficiencies of less than 5%.
They need to be cleaned often to maintain air flow, sometimes weekly. Electrostatic air filters
have warranties ranging from one year to lifetime.

Electronic Air Cleaners

There are two types of electronic air cleaners; both electrically charge particles and attract them
to a collection material. The standard electronic air cleaner will collect charged particles on a
“plate” designed to attract those particles. Most electronic cleaners can obtain 95% efficiency or
more on various particles when the collection plates and ionizing wires are clean, but they can
lose some efficiency as they collect dirt.

A newer technology in electronic air cleaners is called electronically enhanced media. It

combines elements of both electronic and media air cleaners. Particles are electrically charged
and then collected by the massive air cleaning media of a traditional high efficiency cleaner. The
replacement of the media is simple and there are no plates to clean, efficiency is maintained
throughout the media’s life. Electronically enhanced media air cleaners are 99% effective in the
removal of numerous particle categories. Electronic air cleaners generally have warranties of one
to five years.

Examples include:

• Aprilaire Model 5000

• Trane Clean Effects
• Carrier Infinity Air Purifier
• Aspen Air