Thain Gummer of LG Electronics looks at best practice for optimising indoor air quality and reducing risks – including using proper HVAC maintenance, monitoring, and certain types of air purification technology
With increasing awareness that poor indoor air quality (IAQ) is affecting a majority of people in the UK – both at home and at work – it is important to take a closer look at the issues we face and the solutions
that exist.
This is especially the case for self-builders who have the opportunity to access as much support as they need for improving IAQ in their new homes. A robust approach to ensuring the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) equipment in home is vital, especially for those with family members susceptible to allergies and poor air quality.
Outdoor air pollution can make its way indoors as well of course, including pollution from traffic, industry, fossil fuel burning and pesticides – all of which can emit fine particles, CO2, NOx and VOCs. Environmental allergens, bacteria and viruses affect 15% of the EU and UK population in a normal year – which becomes a figure many times that when Covid-19 is circulating. The ‘high season’ for environmental problems is February through to August, while hay fever seems to occur all year round.
Indoor air pollution sources include pollutants from fuel-burning combustion appliances, odours such as those from tobacco products, VOCs produced by building materials and furnishings, products for household cleaning, personal care and hobbies, and mould resulting from excess moisture.
On top of this, you have extreme weather conditions adding to the issues – with heat waves causing poor indoor air quality due to ozone and particulate pollution.
With the rising concern for quality indoor air, using best practice for operation and maintenance of HVAC systems to optimise indoor air quality while reducing risks is more important than ever before. Studies have shown that air pollution can negatively impact our health, and the global pandemic focused us on the adverse health effects caused by inefficient ventilation. In areas with a higher concentration of pollution, research has found that this lower air quality can exacerbate a number of health conditions, including respiratory diseases and cardiovascular damage, and is linked to premature mortality worldwide.
Filtration and purification are vital in solving the problems surrounding IAQ. As well as being able to monitor it we need to be able to differentiate between levels of pollutants to work out how clean is clean.
We need to be able to monitor the air – which involves the use of particulate matter sensing. The majority of HVAC equipment these days now has a sensor measuring PM 1.0 particles (particulate matter with a diameter of less than 1.0 µm). Equipment even has IAQ displays as a matter of course measuring a number of parameters and in a number of different ways – IAQ can vary from good to moderate, unhealthy to poor. It can be monitored and displayed on the unit itself or monitored via an app.
It should be remembered that pollutant removal technology varies according to the equipment measured.
It starts with prefiltration of big particles – a multi-layered structure can remove particles up to 2.5 microns and trap big dust particles at the air inlet – this is the basic approach. The addition of an allergy filter will remove allergy-causing substances, such as house dust mites, floating in the air – helping people who react badly to foreign substances.
Dust electrification can be used to increase the electrostatic charge of particles and improve the efficiency of the fine filters in removing dust particles. The filtering of ultra-fine particles is the next step, removing 99.9% of PM 0.1 size ultra-fine dust. The PM 1.0 allergy filter removes allergy-causing substances. It’s possible to purchase equipment that generates over three million ions to remove up to 99% of airborne bacteria, like staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It also eliminates bad odours that circulate in the air.
Finally solutions are available to introduce UV-C radiation – an effective disinfection process in this situation. The high-energy radiation destroys the DNA and RNA of the microbes so that they can no longer proliferate, removing bacteria and viruses.
You can also specify a new and highly effective five filtration step Air Purification Kit for a Multi Split indoor one-way and single split Dual Vane cassette products. The kit is specifically developed for the indoor units of the air conditioning system and is capable of purifying the indoor air, removing particles and VOCs, while conditioning the air. The multi-process air purification kit, fitted into the air inlet of the indoor unit, consists of five technologies in the order from outside to inside. The first level is the pre-filter, followed by dust electrification, a PM 1.0 filter, a deodorisation filter and an ioniser.
Clearly this is an area of activity that will continue to grow in importance and see increasing levels of activity from all companies operating in the sector.
Thain Gummer is national sales manager at LG Electronic’s Air Conditioning & Energy Solutions