A Tennessee district faced an old school HVAC challenge: aging ventilators and space constraints. So this team tried a new-school variation on common VRF retrofits to deliver improved efficiency and critical IAQ: they decentralized the outdoor air, combining enthalpy wheel and VRF components within a single classroom enclosure.
Engineers retrofitting non-air conditioned schools to variable refrigerant flow (VRF) the last few years have relied on centralized packaged DOAS to comply with ASHRAE 62.1 outdoor air standards.
St. Luke's Cataract & Laser Institute continues to pioneer the use of ultraviolet (UV) germicidal irradiation light systems for disinfecting surgery rooms and promoting clean HVAC system coils.
Revitalizing turn-of-the-century infrastructure means finding a way to dehumidify interiors successfully. Before you move on to weighing DOAS and other techniques, understand the built-in relationship between these structures and water.
An advance investigation into the needs and preferences of the medical team proved in valuable for a Virginia hospital retrofit. The range of desired OR conditions was demanding, but for good reason. The designers, armed with this info, applied experience and mechanical muscle to provide the environmental flexibility to operate from one patient to the next.
Carilion Clinic is a not-for-profit health care organization based in Roanoke, VA. In line with their mission to improve the health of the communities they serve, and with the intent of becoming a teaching facility, Carilion Clinic set upon upgrading their operating rooms and related existing HVAC systems at the Carilion New River Valley Medical Center in Christiansburg, VA.
As we continue to look for weapons to fight hospital-acquired infections (HAI), what does the standard for health care facility ventilation already contain in the way of health metrics? How would a study look if it focused on the one metric that drives so many other decisions in health care? Let’s explore.
Mold concerns became highlighted in the 1920s, when commercial and military needs for safe storage and transport of supplies focused attention on preventing biological deterioration of materials.