Facilities and building operators are all working towards making their indoor spaces safe for people to return. Office buildings, retail and restaurants want their employees and customers to feel comfortable. N³ Innovation is working with a company to identify and mitigate any air flow risks in their buildings.
The first step in this process was to complete a test and balance on the entire HVAC system to ensure the HVAC is up to spec and retaining positive pressure. Blocked ducts, dirty evaporator coils, belt alignment and tension can all inhibit a system from working at its optimal level.
Once the company knew the HVAC system was working properly, they turned their attention inside the buildings. N³ Innovation was able to source and vet several indoor air quality companies to evaluate the spaces. By using IoT sensors strategically located throughout, the company was able to learn how the buildings performed.
These sensors are able to capture specific metrics, such as Particulate Matter (PM), Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC), Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Temperature – CMOS, Relative Humidity - CMOS. All of these data points are important to understand how the air is moving and ‘breathing’.
By identifying the areas where stagnant air is building, the company can work to mitigate possible risks. Since we know that viruses, and specifically SARS-CoV-19 can linger in these low air flow areas for hours, identifying and developing a plan is imperative. A dashboard and heat map trends are produced by the IoT sensor data. The dashboard view allows 24/7 monitoring of each area with alerts of higher than optimal levels of specific metrics.
The company was then able to develop their reopening plan, which included changes in their HVAC ventilation system, additional portable filtration units, and other sources to clean the air. Bringing more fresh air into a space is preferred by the CDC, but often that is not possible, so filtering the air is the next best step.
N³ Innovation’s mission is to help corporate clients create measurable enterprise value by inventing the future. Clients have generated millions of dollars of revenue in new markets, with new products and new technologies.
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