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Importance of Indoor Air Quality

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Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is important for many reasons. It can affect your daily tasks, cause you allergies, and even make you sick. There are a lot of reasons for indoor air to be bad. Pollutants float in the air all around us and these particles stay trapped for longer when dealing with indoors. Polluted outdoor air could enter inside your home, building, warehouse, etc. through natural ventilation. Opening doors or windows, having cracks and leaks through seams and/or other reasons could invite polluted air inside. If not properly vented out, then it’ll stay lingering indoor for longer periods of time.

On top of outdoor air entering inside, the indoor air could have allergens floating around causing the air quality to be lower than the outdoor.

  • Dust
  • Mold
  • Pet Dander
  • Allergens
  • Smoke
  • Particles from cooking
  • Carpet
  • Dust Mites
  • And the list goes on

All these could take affect on indoor air quality. Also, IAQ control is probably more important now than ever before. With all the Coronavirus issues going around, it is definitely important to have clean air that is free of floating particles.

How Does Indoor Air Quality Affect Businesses?

Trying to work while your allergies are at an all time high will impact your workflow and cause you misery when trying to complete tasks. It can impact productivity, cause illness and discomfort, as well as cost you time and money due to the affect air quality has on an employee’s overall well-being. On top of affecting employees and work-flow, it could take an impact on your clients or partners visiting the premises. People visiting that have breathing problems or other allergies from dirty air could be negative for your business as well. People want to walk into an environment and feel safe and clean. Following basic protocols is definitely a must and could save you time and money in the long run.

How To Deal With IAQ

Taking steps to better your IAQ is beneficial for everyone associated with the area. It helps with productivity for the workers as well as help clients feel like they’re in a nice and clean environment that they’ll like to visit time and time again. There are many factors to take into consideration when trying to improve your indoor air quality. First thing that may come into mind are using quality air filters. It’s important to have a proper ventilation system in place and be sure to use efficient air filtration in your HVAC system. We offer a variety of high quality filters along with HEPA filters made specifically to fit your machines.

On top of using a good ventilation system with quality EFS filters, keeping vents and ducts clean is also a must. You don’t want dirty air circulating the room and running through your air stream. Cleaning carpets regularly, wiping down desks and walls, and also dusting ceiling fans and lights can all aid in helping to improve indoor air quality.

Commercial and Industrial Air Filtration

While we offer a range of high quality, high efficiency commercial and industrial air filters, it is important to use the right filters and have the right systems in place. Advanced Filtration Concepts can help with all recommendations, installations, and coil cleaning services as well as supply you with our EFS filters. For any information, please don’t hesitate to Contact Us!

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2 UV light bulbs for benefits of uv lighting for hvac systems

Benefits Of UV Lighting In HVAC System

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It’s no surprise that many people know UV lighting can help eliminate germs. Most of us have seen those UV wands recommended for use on hotel room beds. But, did you know that you can have a full UV lighting system setup in your HVAC Air Handler Units? There are many benefits of UV lighting in an HVAC system. We’ll go over a few of those reasons.

Why UV Lighting?

UV lighting has shown benefits in reducing mold & mildew, improving air quality, and eliminating many viruses & bacteria. Therefore, using UV lighting may be a pretty good idea for your HVAC system. Your HVAC system circulates air around your building and although filters may filter a lot of airborne pathogens out, UV lights may help eliminate even more viruses. You don’t want to have dirty air circulating in your rooms causing people to get sick. The UV rays helps keep microorganisms from multiplying by destroying their chemical bonds, thus considering them dead. Using UV lighting in your HVAC system is a cost-effective way to keep pathogens and microorganisms from spreading through the air.

Types of UV Lighting

There are different UV lighting setups for different types of HVAC disinfection. There is a setup for coil disinfection and another for airstream disinfection.

Coil Disinfection

UV lighting for coil disinfection is designed to address and destroy microbiological biofilm that likes to thrive on the discharge side of the coil. Keeping your coils clean improves airflow and lowers energy costs, making your system work more effectively and efficiently. It helps keeps the buildup of biofilm at bay before your next coil cleaning service. Keep your air running smoothly without restriction by using a UV lighting coil disinfection system.

Airstream Disinfection

UV lighting for airstream disinfection eliminates airborne infections as they travel through high intensity UV lighting. As your air passes through the UV lighting system, the airstream is cleaned by the UV rays by destroying airborne agents. This airstream is the air that passes through your facility, building, home, etc. It’s the air that circulates around the area. Having high quality EFS Filters is a great way to reduce the travel of these airborne pathogens, but having a proper UV lighting system setup by AFC will help eliminate even more.

Quality UV Lighting Systems

Having a quality UV lighting system in place will help keep your HVAC system running smoother and more effectively. It’ll help cut cost while maintaining clean airflow. Advanced Filtration Concepts are experts in the Clean Air industry and have full turnkey services to help keep your air free of airborne pathogens. If you have any questions or would like to know how we can help or to provide more on the benefits of UV lighting in your HVAC system, please contact us anytime.

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Preparing To Reopen

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Steps To Consider

It is almost time where business are going to start opening their doors to the public once again. Does this mean that the Covid-19 pandemic has come to a halt? No, but businesses need to open to survive. People are anxious to open. Businesses are preparing to reopen. There are many recommendations in place by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) as well as other companies on how you should go about reopening. People’s health are still at risk. So, these recommended steps should be considered because it is there to help lower the spread of this virus.

Preparing to Reopen

The CDC has created some guidelines on whether or not you should be considered ready to open. They created some questions you can answer yourself to see if you’re ready. A few of these questions are as follow:

  • Are you following orders and are protecting high risk employees?
  • Are you promoting safe practices such as cleaning, wearing face coverings, and social distancing?
  • Have a good ventilation system in place? (Visit our products page for quality filtration)
  • Is there a monitoring system in place?

These are just a few questions you may need to answer before you should consider reopening, to see the list, visit the workplace decision tool created by the CDC.

Do You Have A Plan?

If you don’t have a reopening plan in order, the CDC has also created a guideline you may follow to help you put a plan in place. You may visit the guidance here, or you can also search through the CDC website to view all of their recommendations. The guidance has been put together for everyone to use, not just for businesses. It explains how you can go about using products to help kill the virus on surfaces, how and what to clean/disinfect on certain materials, how to keep a safe behavioral practice, and more. However, these plans should always be maintained and revised as new information comes into play.

Safe Practices in the Workplace

Some of the safe practices in a work environment that OSHA recommends is upgrading to high-efficiency filters as well as creating physical work barriers and increasing ventilation. Using a Negative Air pressure system can help reduce the spread of airborne pathogens as well. Workers should wear face coverings. EFS has custom cut high-efficiency M16 filter media to help aid in the creation of custom DIY face coverings, if you want to add an extra layer of protection to your face covering.

Conclusion

There are many steps you can take to help promote a safer environment for everyone around you. Also, there are quite a few resources for you to look through to take needed steps leading up to your opening. Here is a reference list that we have come across that may help you.

We are all in this together and we must all take the necessary steps to keep the people around us more safe and to help lower the curve. These steps are in please to help reduce the spread of this virus. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding our filtration products.

two people cleaning and wiping down tables preparing to reopen

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M16 media rolls and cut piece

M16 Filter Media For Face Covering

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M16 Filter Media for DIY Face Coverings

According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), people are required to wear face coverings to lower spreading illnesses. In this case, the coronavirus aka Covid-19. Although there is no cure for this virus, there are measures that can be taken to help slow the spread.

Since we are a filter company, many businesses have contacted us for MERV 16 filter media. They are using this media to create their own DIY face coverings. They are doing this to help aid against the spread of airborne diseases. Since the coronavirus can attach to droplets, dust, and other pathogens, filtering the air may help in decreasing the spread. Surgical and N95 masks are to be reserved for healthcare workers. So, we are left to make our own face coverings or purchase them from other companies. A cloth mask with multiple layers of fabric is what the CDC recommends.

MERV 16 ePM 2.5 – 90+

We have filter media that is rated at a MERV 16 ePM2.5 – 90+ efficiency. We also have cutting machines that can custom cut filter media to your exact specs. Therefore, Engineered Filtration Systems can provide custom cut M16 filter media for creating DIY face coverings. The media is precision cut to your exact specifications. These are not replacement masks, they are high efficiency filter media.

EFS M16 filter material is made up of non-woven, multi-layer polyester polycarbonate media. It is pinsonically welded to join the 3 layers of media together.

Lower The Curve

There is no cure to the virus causing this global pandemic. But, there are steps that can be taken to help reduce the spread. Staying 6 feet apart, wearing face masks that cover the nose and mouth and staying home are some recommended steps to take. Changing out your filters more frequently may also help in lowering the spread of airborne pathogens. As well as and upgrading your filters where you can. Advanced Filtration Concepts may help in making recommendations as well as taking steps in staying clean and safe.

Overall, we’re still in the learning phase. These orders are in place to help lower the spread while figuring out what is exactly going on. Please contact us if you have any questions about the filtration media we are providing.

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woman in hospital with facemask on to help prevent the spread of diseases

Negative Pressure and Airborne Diseases

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Negative Pressure Rooms

As most of us may know, hospitals have various rooms for housing patients with different illnesses. Some of these rooms are meant to house Airborne Infections and keep them from spreading. To help keep these airborne diseases from spreading, hospitals maintain negative pressure in certain rooms and positive pressure in others. Negative room pressure, according to Wikipedia, is a technique hospitals use to keep airborne infections from spreading from one room to another. By having negative air pressure, it allows air to flow into these rooms, but not escape it. Because of this, It helps to keep these airborne infections isolated. Also, the positive pressure rooms allows for air to escape to the negative pressure rooms.

HVAC Filters

Now, we know this may sound complicated and you may ask yourself, how is this created? Well, it’s by having an HVAC system with all the right moving parts. Hospitals need a proper HVAC system. This helps drive clean air in through a multi-step filtration process and allow air circulate around the buildings. However, the infected air has to eventually be vented out. To keep the surrounding air “safe,” it must pass through another filtration process. The filtration process could take numerous steps before air is allowed to be ventilated out. A proper change-out schedule can help keep your filtration process clean and efficient. Engineered Filtration Systems provides quality air filters for numerous Hospital and Medical Center applications. These filters can include:

  • EFS HEPA Filters
  • Vbank Filters
  • Rigid Pocket Filters
  • and More…

Please contact EFS any time for a full list of these filters or to place an order.

Airborne Diseases

With the scare of Covid-19 and the global pandemic it has caused, now is more important than ever to keep all HVAC systems working as efficiently as possible. So, to help reduce the spread of all diseases, people are coming together to help find more solutions. Also, we are working harder to provide you with quality air filtration. Although the Coronavirus pandemic has raised more awareness, these are steps should have always been taken. Keeping all airborne diseases from spreading. Always monitor the level of positive and negative pressure rooms and make sure your filters are changed out regularly.

Negative Pressure and Airborne Diseases Read More »

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How Businesses Can Protect Against Covid-19

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How Businesses Can Protect Against Covid-19

This is an unprecedented experience in modern day that we are living through. Covid-19, also known as the coronavirus, is ravaging its way around our world and is upending life as we know it. Most people are in isolation or quarantine; and the business world has been interrupted on a scale that many of us have never seen in our lifetimes. Now more than ever; is the time to be armed with information on how to protect yourself and your business during this time of global outbreak.

Preparing Workplaces for a COVID-19 Outbreak

Businesses and employers can prevent and slow the spread of COVID-19 by being prepared and reacting accordingly. You should plan to respond to varying levels of disease transmission in your community in a flexible way. Be prepared to constantly refine your daily business model matching the demands of the outbreak.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), most American workers will likely experience low- to medium-exposure risk levels at their job or place of employment, regardless of the industry. All employers need to consider how best to decrease the spread of COVID-19 and lower the impact in their workplace.

Reduce Transmission Among Employees

One of the most proactive and effective strategies for fighting the virus is to try and reduce the transmission between your employees. While it might be hard on your bottom line, it is imperative that you actively encourage any sick employees to work from home, even if they don’t have symptoms related to coronavirus.

Employees who show any symptoms of coronavirus should immediately notify their supervisor and remain at home. Sick employees should not return to work until they have met the criteria to stop isolating at home, usually after being tested and cleared by a medical professional. It is even advised that if an employee has a sick family member in their household that they notify their supervisor and make plans to work from home if possible.

If one of your employees begins to display symptoms (i.e., fever, cough, or shortness of breath) upon arrival at work or who become sick during the day should immediately be separated from other employees and sent home. If an employee is confirmed to have coronavirus, you need to inform fellow employees of their possible exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace, while maintaining confidentiality as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

It is important to be aware that some employees may be at higher risk for serious illness, such as older adults and those with chronic medical conditions such as obesity and diabetes. Consider minimizing face-to-face contact between these employees or assign work tasks that allow them to maintain a distance of six feet from other workers, customers and visitors, or to telework if possible. Video conferencing has never been a more important workplace tool as it is nowadays.

Maintain Healthy Business Operations

During this time of crisis, it is crucial to educate employees about how they can reduce the spread of COVID-19 in your workplace. One ingenious practice some businesses have begun is to appoint a workplace coordinator who is responsible for COVID-19 related issues and their impact at the workplace. Their job would be to inform employees of proper hand cleanliness procedures such as:

  • Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol if soap and water are not available.
  • Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
  • Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze or use the inside of your elbow. Throw used tissues in the trash and immediately wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
  • Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces such as workstations, keyboards, telephones, handrails, and doorknobs. Dirty surfaces can be cleaned with soap and water prior to disinfection. To disinfect, use products that meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) criteria for use against COVID-19, and are appropriate for the surface.
  • Avoid using other employees’ phones, desks, offices, or other work tools and equipment, when possible. If necessary, clean and disinfect them before and after use.
  • Practice social distancing by avoiding large gatherings and maintaining distance (approximately 6 feet or 2 meters) from others when possible.

Maintain a Healthy Work Environment

One of the more overlooked and technical areas of safety improvement you can focus on for your business is the airflow ventilation system. This particular virus is one that attacks the respiratory system, so it is now more important than ever to have a high functioning commercial air filtration system. 

Consider improving the building ventilation system by increasing ventilation rates or increasing the percentage of outdoor air that circulates into the system. You can also look into upgrading your system’s industrial air filters to something like the HVP Hepa Filter from Engineered Filtration Systems (EFS). These filters work overtime in preventing the spread of this deadly disease.

Along with upgrading your air ventilation system, support respiratory etiquette and hand hygiene for employees, customers, and worksite visitors. You can do this by providing tissues and no-touch disposal receptacles in all common areas. Make sure your restroom facilities offer soap and clean water. If soap and water are not readily available, use alcohol-based hand sanitizer that is at least 60% alcohol. If hands are visibly dirty, soap and water should be chosen over hand sanitizer. Ensure that adequate supplies are maintained. Place hand sanitizers in common areas to encourage hand hygiene. You can also place posters that encourage hand hygiene to help stop the spread at the entrance to your workplace and in other workplace areas where they are likely to be seen. While it is commonplace in the business world to shake hands, it is best to discourage handshaking.

Lastly, it is ideal to perform routine environmental cleaning and disinfection. Routinely clean and disinfect all frequently touched surfaces in the workplace, such as workstations, keyboards, telephones, handrails, and doorknobs. If surfaces are dirty, they should be cleaned using a detergent or soap and water prior to disinfection.

For disinfection, most common EPA-registered household disinfectants should be effective. Provide disposable wipes so that commonly used surfaces (for example, doorknobs, keyboards, remote controls, desks, other work tools and equipment) can be wiped down by employees before each use.

Armed with this information, you can protect your employees, your business and do your part in preventing the further spread of the coronavirus.

Call EFS for more information about the best commercial air filters to use for your company’s ventilation system.

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High Temperature air filtration required for People working in an assembly line manufacturer company

Advantages of High Temperature Air Filtration

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Advantages of High Temperature Air Filtration

You are probably familiar with air filters in a common workplace or industrial setting, but what about filters for specific industries that have uncommon needs? Many professional industries require special filters that can handle a range of temperatures to keep their business running at maximum efficiency. That’s where the advantages of high temperature air filtration comes in.

One need that requires a special type of filter is for those industries that deal in very warm environments where elevated temperatures are a regular occurrence. It takes a special type of filter to withstand extreme temperatures and still be able to filter out particulate matter from the air stream.

What are High Temperature Filters?

The filter media used in high temp filters can be distinguished by structure, composition and operational behavior. Initially developed for electric power generation, this technology is now receiving considerable attention from process industries. With the introduction of reliable, high temp filtration, there has been increasing interest in this type of industrial air filtration across several industries.

In general, high temp filtration is defined as filtration above an operational temperature of 260°C(500°F), where the use of conventional filter media is no longer possible. High temperature filtration from industrial processes offers various advantages in terms of increasing process efficiency, heat recovery, and protection of plant installations. Extremely interesting and demanding applications are found in the process industry that require filtration solutions for heated environments.

In a high temp air filtration system, the air is cooled through a tube section over a common hopper, reducing the filter temperature to 350° F and taking the air volume from 34,000 to 20,000 Actual Cubic Feet per Minute (ACFM). The filter collector is relatively small, and the system overall is smaller than dilution air into a large filter. The air-to-air heat exchange can be in front of any high temp application to reduce the size of the filter. This results in reduced maintenance costs, which is a huge plus to almost any industrial business.

Who Uses High Temperature Air Filtration?

High temperature industrial filters are mainly used in the automotive, food and beverage, and pharmaceutical industries. Industrial kitchens or food processing plants often reach very excessive temperatures during their workflow. Because of this, they require strong filters to prevent biochemical waste from transferring through the air-stream.

The pharmaceutical industry makes use of what are called “depyrogenation ovens” in order to create completely sterile vials for medical products which require very high heats to achieve. The automotive industry has countless processes during the manufacturing workflow that require high heat filtration solutions.

Advantages of Dust Collection With High Temperature Air Filtration

There are several advantages to collecting dust and particulate matter at higher temperatures. First and foremost, there is an increased overall efficiency due to the lack of need for repeated heating. Collecting at higher temperatures allows for the recovery of thermal energy of the exhaust gas and protects your downstream installations, such as heat exchangers or catalytic converters.

Higher temperature collection helps avoid condensation build up and separates combustible dust and gaseous components (through absorption and other catalytic processes). Overall, it is a simply a better integration of filtration for the entire process.

Choosing the Right Industrial Filters for Your Business

Design and engineering of high temperature filters depend upon dust characteristics and the dust’s interaction with the filter media. As these effects are difficult to predict, testing to assess dust qualities and filtration behavior are essential. The first step in testing is to determine the most appropriate filter media for the specific application. Often, these media filters are so effective that traditional methods of measurement cannot be used for determining clean gas concentration. A prerequisite for the proper operation of a high temperature filtration system is reliable regeneration or cleaning of the filter elements.

Look No Further than the EFS High Temp Filter

When it is time to purchase your next commercial filter, look no further than Engineered Filtration Systems products. These industrial filters are specially designed to protect processes at high temperatures and stand up to even the most demanding of conditions. They universally meet the strictest requirements and maintain their integrity over the life of the product. They are rated very highly for their performance values under extreme temperatures. Manufactured of specially selected components, EFS air filters that can handle elevated temperatures. These filters are ideal for applications requiring high efficiency filtration in demanding environments.

EFS high temperature filters are designed for applications up to 700°F and are offered in two efficiency ranges. These ranges are MERV 11 (65%) and MERV 14 (95%) per ASHRAE Standard 52.2. An EFS high temp filter is built with an aluminum frame that is designed to inhibit the break-down of corrosion inhibitors at elevated temperatures. The sealing material used on the industrial air filter is self-extinguishing. It is also sturdy enough to repel corrosion inhibitors at the highest of temperatures.

EFS High Temperature Air Filtration

The EFS high temp air filter offers premium protection during heated operation across all industries. It provides significant reduction in heating and cooling times, thereby reducing the total cycle times of batch processes. Thus, increasing production in general and reducing overall costs. These EFS commercial air filters can withstand extreme temperatures. This makes them effective for facilities that routinely experience high heat on a constant basis.

The EFS air filters are composed of special components that resist extreme temperature changes. This makes them optimal for aggressive air filtration. The filter media is made of fiberglass. Fiberglass operates perfectly at any heat level and does not degrade under the hotness and pressure. The media pack is captured by faceguards upstream and downstream. Thus, maintaining rigidity and integrity of EFS commercial filters.

The high filtration efficiencies of more than 99.9% with clean gas concentrations significantly below 5 mg/m3 can be achieved. Adapting commercial air filtration conditions to the dust features of your work environment. Existing dust collector installations can easily be retrofitted by a wide range of available filter element lengths and the employment of standard tube sheet fastenings. This makes EFS high temperature air filters the perfect solution for industrial business needs.

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Spring Allergies – Make Your Building a Safe Haven with EFS Filters

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Spring is in the air and it’s time to enjoy the turning of the winter weather into the blooming of spring. This time of year is generally viewed as a positive for some – green leaves, lush grass and pretty flowers means lovely hiking weather for nature lovers. For others, it means horrible hay fever, the most common form of non-infectious allergic rhinitis, which affects between 10-30% of adults and 40% of children. For employers, using the right industrial air filters become a critical choice in keeping your employees healthy and happy.

In general, all age groups in the U.S. are all becoming more ‘allergic’. More than 50 million Americans suffer from allergies each year, which is the 6th leading cause of chronic illness in the U.S. with an annual cost in excess of $18 billion. For those of us susceptible to airborne allergens, or suffering from a condition exacerbated by poor air quality, creating a clean, pollution-free environment once we’re indoors alleviates some of the discomfort.

It is important to know that during the spring season, pollen from trees, grasses and weeds are released into the air, traveling for many miles. In the nose of a hay fever sufferer, the immune system mistakenly sees this pollen as a danger, triggering antibodies that attack the allergens and histamines which are responsible for the runny noses and itchy eyes.

Over 50% of adults with hay fever suffer from sleep problems. Pollen aside, your building can be a hotbed of allergens, including chemicals released from cleaning products, carpets and even paint. If you already have a respiratory complaint, such as asthma, this airborne debris can exacerbate the issue.

What Is Allergic Respiratory Disease?

Allergic respiratory disease includes both rhinitis and asthma resulting from allergen exposure. Allergic respiratory disease includes symptoms associated with bronchial asthma and/or rhino conjunctivitis. Typical symptoms include nasal and sinus irritation, itching, congestion, sneezing, coughing, wheezing, and breathing difficulty. A person with a chronic cough may be experiencing allergic rhinitis or asthma, and the cough can be a symptom of allergic respiratory disease. Respiratory allergy can include symptoms such as nasal congestion, runny nose, and irritated eyes, nose, and throat.

Some people may exhibit rhinitis symptoms, while others might only have asthmatic symptoms, and still others may have both. Asthma is an obstructive lung disease that occurs from a hyper-reaction to some sort of stimulus, such as dust or pet dander. Asthma symptoms include inflammation of the bronchial lining, which causes airflow obstruction, wheezing, shortness of breath, and air trapped in the chest.

These symptoms may occur persistently or only intermittently depending on the allergen and the control measures used. Indoor and outdoor pollutants in the air are a significant cause of respiratory problems, and these irritants can cause lung inflammation and damage. Eliminating allergens from the workplace, performing deep cleaning, and using proper commerical air filtration can be helpful for people with this disease.

Air Filters for Allergies

Regular HVAC filters are intended to protect your equipment, not your lungs and sinuses. Many people mistakenly believe that the air filters in furnaces and air conditioners keep dust and allergens out of the air. In reality, that’s not what HVAC filters are designed to do. Their purpose is actually to keep dust out of the equipment to prevent damage to the system and keep it running efficiently.

While ordinary furnace and AC filters do help to remove some dust from the air, they do little to trap the microscopic particles that cause the sneezing and wheezing. To prevent this, you need special industrial air filters for allergies that are designed to stop those tiny particles.

Proper use of industrial filters such as HEPA portable air cleaning units combined with high-efficiency HVAC filtration can be an important first line of defense for allergy and asthma sufferers, reducing triggers by sifting out airborne contaminants to provide cleaner indoor air quality (IAQ).

The MERV Scale

All HEPA filters are not created equal. To get the best results, you need to check the MERV ratings of all industrial air filters. HVAC HEPA filters for allergies are rated on how well they block particles of different sizes. The rating system is called the minimum efficiency reporting system, or MERV.

The ratings range from MERV 1 to MERV 12, with the higher number indicating filters that are capable of removing the smallest particles. Ideally you want to choose a MERV rating of 10 or higher, which are most effective at blocking the particles that cause allergy symptoms.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has defined the most common uses for filters of varying MERV ratings. These guidelines will help you identify the most appropriate filter for your needs:

● MERV rating between 13 and 16: Typically used for hospital inpatient care facilities, general surgery facilities and other commercial buildings that require superior filtration.
● MERV rating between 9 and 12: Usually chosen for hospital laboratories, better commercial buildings and superior residential buildings.
● MERV rating between 5 and 8: Used for better residential buildings, standard commercial facilities and industrial workplaces.
● MERV rating between 1 and 4: Commonly used in residential window air filters for minimum filtration.

Choosing the Right Filter

If your workers suffer from serious allergies, a HEPA filter is the best choice as it eliminates more airborne allergens than any other option. High efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters are the best option for removing allergens from the air. This type of mechanical air filter has a very fine mesh which captures most particulate matter and surpasses traditional MERV ratings. It’s important to note that while HEPA filters are extremely efficient for filtering particles out of the air, they will not filter gaseous substances out.

Combine an activated carbon filter with your HEPA filter to eliminate both particle and gaseous pollutants. HEPA filters are much more expensive than other options and your HVAC system may need to be modified to accommodate them. If you’re concerned about the cost-effectiveness of the product, a HEPA filter may not be the best option. In this case, choose a filter with the highest MERV rating you can afford for effective allergen filtration.

To Remain Effective, Filters Must Be Changed Regularly

You need to change your HEPA filters more frequently than you think, especially during high pollen season. HEPA air filters for allergies need to be changed more frequently than ordinary paper HVAC filters, which means changing them at least every other month, and possibly more often depending on your location. An HVAC expert such as EFS can advise you on what is recommended for your equipment and your area.

Spring Allergies – Make Your Building a Safe Haven with EFS Filters Read More »

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Commercial Air Filters and the Clean Power Plan

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The Clean Power Plan (CPP) was created in 2015 and set the first-ever national limits on carbon pollution from power plants in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Recently, the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed repealing the CPP.

Without these carbon pollution standards, it is likely the need for commercial air filters will increase significantly and will the demands on business owners to guard against pollution.

According to the CPP, coal-powered plants produce the largest source of carbon dioxide emission in the United States which is roughly 1/3 of all domestic greenhouse gas emissions. By transitioning to clean energy, carbon and air pollution decreased and public health improves every year.

CPP Means Big Public Health Benefits

A CPP fact sheet outlines how, by 2030, the plan would prevent:

-1,500 to 3,600 premature deaths
-90,000 asthma attacks in children
-up to 1,700 heart attacks
-1,700 hospital admissions
-300,000 missed school and work days

With CPP in place providing a transition to cleaner sources of energy, Americans and their businesses are better protected from air pollution. Sulfur dioxide from power plants will decrease as would emissions of nitrogen oxide. These pollutants in particular create dangerous levels of soot and smog that have led to thousands of premature deaths and hospitalizations every year.

CPP creates a partnership between the EPA, all United States, tribes and territories. The EPA sets a goal and the states and tribes choose how to meet it. EPA established goals including a rate-based state goal measured in pounds per megawatt hour; a mass-based state goal measured in total short tons of CO2; and a goal with a new source complement measured in total short tons of CO2. States can develop plans to achieve CO2 emissions performance rate goals by 2030.

EPA Emission Performance Rates

The EPA Clean Air Act determines the best system of emissions reduction (BSER) for any given pollutant. The BSER building blocks require companies to:

1. Reduce carbon intensity of electricity generation by improving the heat rate of existing coal-fired power plants.

2. Substitute increased electricity generation from lower-emitting existing natural gas plants for reduced generation from higher-emitting, coal-fired power plants.

3. Substitute increased electricity generation from new zero-emitting renewable energy sources, like wind and solar, for reduce generation from existing coal-fired power plants.

EPA has applied all building blocks to coal plants and natural gas power plants to produce regional emission performance rates for each category.

CPP provides guidelines for development, submittal and implementation of State plans to establish standards of performance rates.

States can choose between 2 plan types: Emission standards plan (ESP) and State measures plan (SMP). ESP provides source-specific requirements for all power plants to meet required emissions performance rates.

SMP improves residential energy efficiency not included as federally enforced components of the plan. State measures must result in power plants meeting their mass-based goal. Each state has the flexibility to select their preferred measures to achieve the CO2 emission performance rates. States can also trade emissions that allows power plants to integrate operations to address carbon pollution.

The Clean Power Plan gives states an opportunity for their communities to share the benefits of a clean energy economy including energy efficiency and renewable energy.

Early investors in wind and solar generation will be rewarded by the Clean Energy Incentive Program that makes allowances or emission rate credits available. EPA is also providing additional incentives that encourage energy efficiency investments in low-income communities.

To ensure opportunities for low-income communities, minority and tribal communities to participate in decision making, the EPA is requiring that states demonstrate how they are actively engaging with communities as part of their public participation process in the formulation of state plans.

The final rule includes information on communities living near power plants, and EPA will provide additional information to facilitate engagement between communities and states as implementation of CPP moves forward.

As implementation of the Clean Power Plan goes forward, the agency will conduct air quality evaluations to determine impacts that state plans may have on vulnerable communities.

What do Industrial Air Filter Manufacturers Need to Know?

With air pollution levels increasing, it falls upon industrial facility owners such as commercial buildings, airports and schools to keep outside air from entering as well as effectively filtering the air that does get in. Commercial air filtration devices can be installed on a building’s existing heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.

Buildings owners are required to spend more money to seal structures and keep windows and doors closed. Even with this step, outdoor air comes through cracks in the walls, ceilings and floors and must be filtered.

One way to filter air pollutants is to use a High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter capable of capturing 99.97% for particles down to 0.3 microns in size. In this example, contaminants from coal emissions are rated as PM2.5 or smaller than 2.5 microns in size. This translates to about a hundredth of the width of a single strand of hair.

Choosing the right HEPA filter is critical as an efficient filtration system can cost you in multiple ways such as: wasted energy; more maintenance and repair costs; damaged equipment and unhealthy, unproductive employees.

What can an Air Filtration System Accomplish?

Air filters trap allergens and pollutants as well as hazardous contaminants and can blow back clean air into your working environment. Although there are a variety of commercial air filtration methods, they fall into 4 categories:

1. Diffusion is a filtration method when particles makes contact with highly porous media such as activate carbon.

2. When a particle makes contact with an air filter media due to a change in inertia, it is called interception. The combination of surface friction and static low pressure prevents particles from moving.

3. Electrostatic attraction is a filtration method using charged fibers that act like magnets to trap airborne particles.

4. The sieving, or straining approach uses filter media where any gap between mesh, fiber of metal is smaller than the particulate matter being captured.

Designing an effective air filtration system, with quality commercial air filters, is critical and best left up to experts who have done the job many times. Call EFS today at 800 796-4337 or visit their website.

Commercial Air Filters and the Clean Power Plan Read More »

industrial plant smoke stacks

What Commercial Air Filters are Required for Cogeneration Plants?

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One hard fact we have to face as a society is this: we are running out of fossil fuels. Oil, coal, and natural gas are still used to create 80-90 percent of energy worldwide. On one hand, it is good that we are running low on these fuels as they are commonly linked to global warming and climate change.

On the other hand, the great dependence on these materials means we will need to find new solutions as these sources start to dry up. Until renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power are more prevalent, one of the best solutions we can switch over to is a combined heat and power (CHP) factory. These factories use fuel more efficiently and have the potential to save up to 40 percent of energy in total. A win for our pocketbook and a win for the planet.

These types of plants create their own special industrial air filtration needs. Special types of filtration systems and filters must be implemented to protect workers as well as the environment surrounding these facilities. First, let’s take a deeper look into how combined heat and power systems work and what air filtration needs arise.

What is CHP?

To fully understand how a combined heat and power factory works, let’s compare it to a conventional power plant. Conventional power plants make electricity by burning a fossil fuel (such as oil, coal or natural gas) in a huge furnace to produce heat energy. The released heat energy is then used to boil large vats of water which then creates steam. The steam then powers a turbine which is connected to a generator which then produces electricity. This process is fairly inefficient overall as energy is wasted in every step of the process.

In contrast, the way a combined heat and power factory works is to actually utilize the byproducts of the conventional process in other ways. For example, instead of letting the released heat partially escape up the cooling towers, a combined heat and power system would reroute that water into people’s homes and offices as hot water. Electricity is often wasted in a conventional system, but in a CHP, electricity is used to its optimal efficiency. The term cogeneration essentially means that the electricity and heat are made at the same time.

Air Filtration for Combined Heat and Power Plants

Air filtration comes into the picture for combined heat and power plants in relation to the fossil fuel powered turbines. Proper air filtration is not only essential to the overall performance of these turbines, but it can also help in saving lots of money in the long run. The costs to operate these turbines is nearly 80 percent in comparison to the lifespan of the electricity, which means that small improvements to efficiency can really add up on the balance sheet.

Proper industrial air filters for these turbines can also immensely reduce the maintenance required to keep these machines running. The engine will run cleaner, there will be fewer functional shutdown require less frequent inspections which can save on labor costs. But what type of filter is right for this important job? Let’s dive deeper and see what filters are best suited to the task at hand.

Multi-Stage Filters for Combined Heat Power Plants

The primary filter system used is a multi-stage filtration system. An average filter system will include a guard filter, a sort of pre-filter that sits upstream of the chilling coils, while a panel-type filter sits downstream of the coils. The guard filter’s job is to keep the coils clean for maximum efficiency of heat transfer. This filter also helps keep the other finer filters in shape and serves to extend the life of those filters.

Next in the system if the fine filter element. This filter is mounted to the filter face of the inlet plenum and has a large surface area. This filter does the heavy lifting in terms of catching large particulate matter without causing any pressure drops to the air flow. As the air passes through these fine filters, the inlet filter assembly separates ventilation air from combustion air created by the turbines. These separated streams then flow through different ducts to the generator compartments. One of the added benefits of the phase of the multi-stage process is the noise reduction. An inlet silencer helps diffuse the noise and maintains a low noise level for the whole unit.

Next in the systems is the heating and cooling elements. There are evaporative coolers built in to maximize gas turbine performance on those hot summer days. These cooling systems use evaporation to reduce the air temperature in the inlet. In the winter, anti-icing coils will activate to prevent freezing and prevent a complete halting to the process.

Now we get to the optional and job specific filters that may be found in a multi-stage system. The two main types of filters here are pulse filters and static filters, and each serve a specific purpose depending on the job at hand. Environmental conditions such as the weather factor into which filter you need, as well as any specific contaminants you may be trying to filter out.

A pulse filter should be used when the dust it is trapping is .300 mg or higher. These are often used in areas with lots of dust or sand storms – deserts areas, steel mills, cement plants, etc. They are also used in snowy environments where snow or ice crystals threaten to interrupt the workflow. These filters are also unique in that they are self-cleaning.

Static filters are actually quite inexpensive and can serve as a semi-pre-filter for your system. The main purpose of a static filter is to extend the life of your barrier elements. The only downside to these filters is that they require quite a bit of regular maintenance and upkeep in order to keep your system running optimally. Most of these types of filters can’t be cleaned and thus must be replaced regularly, which can add to the cost of operating your plant.

Commercial air filtration is optimized to minimize foreign contaminants entering the gas turbine, and are largely based on the operating environment. Seasonal pollutants, rain, ice and snow, sand, dust, local industry exhausts, and other air contaminants must be taken into consideration when choosing the right system for your CHP.

What Commercial Air Filters are Required for Cogeneration Plants? Read More »

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