P1 HOME
CONNECTION July 2020
CREATING
HEALTHY BUILDINGS FRESH AIR MATTERS: P1 Group Optimizes Ventilation Rate to Increase Safety for Associates
You don’t have to be a an HVAC expert to guess that increasing your building’s intake of fresh outside air is beneficial during a pandemic like COVID-19. P1 Group values safety above all, and in order to follow CDC interim guidelines, has increased outside air (OA) rates during the pandemic at the company headquarters in Lenexa. In addition, P1 Group offers this service to customers as part of our Healthy Buildings initiative which includes options for UV-C treatment and surface sanitization as well. “We want our associates and visitors to have peace of mind that we’re doing everything we can to ensure a healthy building,” HVAC Service Supervisor Sean Marconette said. “Most important, the increased fresh air helps flush ‘used’ and possibly contaminated air from the building faster.” Sean notes that “contaminated” air is also prevalent during the usual cold and flu season. A higher ventilation rate during this time will reduce coworkers passing those germs to each other. Vice President Tony Whited developed the direction and scope of work for implementation. Working with Sean, HVAC Service Technician Paul Larson performed the work on our rooftop units using NEBB standards for measuring and adjusting airflow rates. And there’s a science to getting it right.
“We have to review the capacity of the equipment we’re dealing along with estimations for design- degree days to see how much outside air the equipment will be able to handle and still keep up,” Paul explained. DESIGN DEGREE DAYS are used to describe a period of time with the maximum conditions an HVAC system was designed to accommodate while maintaining the desired indoor temperature and humidity. Different engineers have different numbers they may use depending on where they’re from or the climate in which they’re designing (e.g. a hot day may be anywhere from 95-110 degrees, and a cold day anywhere from 10 to zero degrees).
The challenge with increasing the OA is it’s going to tax the equipment more, leading to increased running costs. “Higher ventilation requires the equipment to work harder. More OA requires additional cooling or heating to be used,” Sean noted. “Through our assessment, we try to help customers understand their equipment’s limitations pertaining to size, age, and other factors.” But what is the cost of not doing it? Sean says liability plays a major role. No one wants to be liable for
STAY IN THE KNOW! Like us and follow us on