by Nichole D. Petersen
Better air equals better outcomes. Facilities with superior indoor air quality (IAQ) provide a safe and healthy environment for occupants. Increased productivity, improved occupant wellness and greater energy efficiency are only some of the benefits of creating a better indoor environment. Improving IAQ is something design engineers and building owners strive for but where do they start? As the old saying goes, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”
For the past 20 years, Aircuity has been contributing to measurably better environments by facilitating better airflow optimization and demand control ventilation. Their technology continuously helps to optimize ventilation rates and provide intelligent data and energy savings to a wide variety of constituents. Here’s how the Aircuity sensing platform works:
Using a multiplexed, centralized air sampling platform, industrial sensors are deployed across a large footprint and bring air samples to a sensor suite. Sensed parameters are predetermined prior to the system installment and may include total volatile organic compounds (TVOC), carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, particulates, dew point, etc. A decision is then made to increase, lower or sustain current ventilation levels.
Aircuity then sends a command to the lab or BMS control via BACnet and the control system responds and adjusts the ventilation level accordingly. Data from the air sample is archived to the cloud for future retrieval and is displayed as actionable analytics through Aircuity’s proprietary application, MyAircuity. The cycle occurs continuously in alternating limb structure throughout all sensor spaces connected to the sensor suite.
This technology is relevant to many applications such as:
- Economizer control – Confirmed reliability and accuracy of economizer control through regular calibration and sensor assurance.
- Exhaust fan control – Significant energy savings through lower stack velocity when measured VOCs are below a defined trigger level.
- Fault detection diagnosis – Identification of poor or underperforming rooms.
- Smart Labs – Six of seven elements that contribute to Smart Labs designs are impacted byAircuity.
- WELL and healthy building certification – Aircuity delivers on the WELL promise byvaccurately sensing and providing smart signals for controlling ventilation.
- Clean rooms – Precise control of the environment to meet ISO Standards 7-9.
- Parking garages – Cost-effective solution over distributed sensors for parking garages, measuring both the key parameters of CO and CO2.
Aircuity is readily accepted across many markets involving facilities like Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Cambridge Public Schools, Jackson Laboratories, Mohegan Sun Casino, Tufts University and UConn Health, to name a few.
Aircuity’s unique system architecture provides differential measurement, a single location to maintain and calibrate sensors remotely, better life cycle costs approach, enhanced IEQ and intelligent insight, all of which result in measurably better environments.
Nichole Petersen
Nichole D. Petersen is director of marketing at Flow Tech, Inc.
