Ensuring normal air quality in office premises with the existing ventilation system

Abstract

In the conditions of growing interest in indoor air cleaning and strengthening WHO recommendations regarding the concentration of suspended particles in the air (should not exceed 5 μg/m3), there is a need to create clear rules for placing cleaning equipment on ventilation and air conditioning systems. This applies not only to objects that are just being designed, but also to already operated objects with a functioning ventilation system. After all, it is precisely at such objects that there are limited opportunities to intervene in the work of not only engineering systems, but also the operation of the building itself during repairs. The goals of the study were to obtain data on the efficiency of air purification in a given volume with the available air exchange rate of a functioning supply-exhaust system. A separate task was to check the data declared by the manufacturer regarding the pressure drop on the built-in HERA channel filter. The most effective way to clean indoor air from pollutants is considered to be its removal from places of permanent residence of people. Using a general exchange ventilation system equipped with modern filtering equipment, you can achieve significant results in improving air quality. In this case, the ventilation system in an office building in the city center is considered, which was equipped with an additional channel filter with a MERV16 (or HEPA 11) class filter cassette. This modernization of the ventilation system in half a year of operation made it possible to reduce pollution with particles in the size range of 0.3-10 microns in the air environment of office premises by 70...76 % with an insignificant multiplicity in compliance with the norms of the minimum value of air exchange in terms of the amount of fresh air according to the sanitary norm and allowed to avoid significant capital investments for the repair of engineering networks and losses due to the impossibility of operating the building during the repair. The conclusions of the study need to be checked in office premises with an existing ventilation system when recording a gradual decrease in the concentration of pollutants in the premises during the operation of the system in order to determine the optimal multiplicity to achieve the specified air quality when using filters.