AprilAire, Airthings announce IAQ-related strategic partnership at AHR Expo

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, 31 January 2022: AprilAire, which supplies Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) solutions for the home, announced a strategic partnership with Airthings, a global technology company that produces IAQ monitors for radon and other dangerous airborne contaminants that impact overall health and wellness.

Making the announcement through a joint Press release, the two companies said the partnership is rooted in addressing a common issue for homeowners everywhere: People spend more than 90% of their time indoors, but most are unaware of their home’s IAQ – and when they identify a problem, they typically do not have the knowledge and expertise to remedy the situation effectively.

The new AprilAire and Airthings partnership, the companies said, is a ground-breaking, full circle integration that combines detection, education and mitigation to offer contractors an intelligent air quality solution tailored specifically to their customer’s lifestyle and living environment.  

Airthings’ monitors help people learn about their IAQ and identify problems utilizing the brand’s line of smart air quality sensors to intelligently monitor conditions in the home, the two companies said. AprilAire helps solve air quality problems with the AprilAire Healthy Air System and the complete line of whole-home healthy air solutions and nationwide network of top HVAC experts trained to install them, the companies added.  

In partnership, the brands will now provide consumers with a one-stop shop, combining the best in radon and air quality monitoring with the best solutions to manage air purity, humidity, fresh air supply, radon mitigation and temperature, the two companies claimed.

“We are proud to partner with Airthings, a company whose purpose so closely aligns with our own of making homes healthy,” said Dale Philippi, President and CEO, AprilAire. “Together, we will increase awareness of the impact the air we breathe in our homes has on our health and wellbeing and the availability of effective professional solutions to deliver healthy air. Working with Airthings, our network of healthy air experts will be better able to tailor solutions to address homeowner concerns.”  

Airthings will integrate its flagship air quality monitor, View Plus, as a core component of the AprilAire partnership solution, the two companies said. View Plus, launched in 2021, is a comprehensive and advanced consumer air quality monitor on the market, tracking seven air quality components, including particulate matter, CO2 and radon, the companies claimed. AprilAire recently added Radon Mitigation Systems to its healthy air solutions portfolio to control radon, the leading cause of lung cancer for non-smokers, the companies said.

Equipped with hub functionality, View Plus will enable HVAC professionals to remotely monitor air quality in the homes they service while also providing full air quality visibility to the homeowners themselves, the companies said. When problems arise, the professional receives automatic notifications and can take immediate mitigation actions, the companies said. The newly formed alliance between AprilAire and Airthings will help consumers access information on their air quality with more clarity, and expert consultation than ever before, enabling them to make informed decisions, the companies added.  

Oyvind Birkenes, CEO, Airthings, said: “Our new partnership with AprilAire helps consumers navigate complex decisions in a convenient way. Indoor air quality can be a real threat to our health and well-being, which is why proactive monitoring is essential. However, when problems arise, the next steps can seem daunting. By teaming up with AprilAire, our hope is that when people encounter indoor air quality issues, they’ll turn to us to evaluate the situation, diagnose the problem, and develop recommendations and solutions to mitigate the situation if necessary – providing peace of mind to people everywhere.”

ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force releases updated Building Readiness Guide

ATLANTA, Georgia, 02 February 2021: With the performance of many HVAC systems in buildings still being evaluated, the ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force has updated its reopening guidance for HVAC systems to help mitigate the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, ASHRAE said through a Press release.

“The Building Readiness Guide includes additional information and clarifications to assist designers and commissioning providers in performing pre- or post-occupancy flush calculations to reduce the time and energy to clear spaces of contaminants between occupancy periods,” said Wade Conlan, Lead, ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force Building Readiness team. “New information includes the theory behind the use of equivalent outdoor air supply, method for calculating the performance of filters and air cleaners in series, and filter droplet nuclei efficiency that help evaluate the systems’ ability to flush the building.”

According to ASHRAE, major updates to the building readiness guidance include the following:

• Pre- or post-flushing strategy methodology: The strategy has been updated to include the use of filter droplet nuclei efficiency, which is the overall efficiency of filter, based on viable virus particle sizes in the air, to assist in determining the impact of the filter on the recirculated air on the equivalent outdoor air. This allows the filter efficiency as a function of particle size, using ASHRAE Standard 52.2 test results, to be estimated based on the expected size distribution of virus-containing particles in the air. This calculation is currently based on Influenza A data and will be updated as peer-reviewed research becomes available for the distribution of particle sizes that contain a viable SARS-CoV-2 virus. Additionally, a chart has been added to help determine the time to achieve 90%, 95% or 99% contaminant reduction, if the equivalent outdoor air changes per hour is known.

• Flushing time calculator: There is now a link to a view-only Google Sheet that can be downloaded for use, to help determine the available equivalent outdoor air changes and time to perform the flush. This sheet is based on a typical mixed AHU with filters, cooling coil, with potential for in-AHU air cleaner (UVC is noted in the example), and in-room air cleaning devices. Provided efficiencies of MERV-rated filters are based on the performance of over 200 actual filters from MERV 4 through 16, but the tool also allows users to enter custom characteristics for specific filters.

• The sheet also calculates the filter droplet nuclei efficiency, based on the cited research but allows a user to adjust the anticipated distribution of virus, as desired. It also allows specification of the zone (room) air distribution effectiveness from ASHRAE Standard 62.1 to account for the impact of the HVAC system air delivery method on the degree of mixing. Default calculations assume perfect mixing. Finally, the tool allows for the target air changes to be adjusted if an owner wants to achieve a different per cent removal in lieu of the recommended 95%. 

• Heating season guidance: The guide now includes data to consider for heating of outdoor air and the potential impact on pre-heat coils in systems.

• Adjustments to align with Core Recommendations: The Core Recommendations were released in January 2021, and this guidance document needed to be updated to ensure that the information provided aligned with the intent of those recommendations. This included minimum outdoor air supply and filter efficiency requirements and their role in an equivalent outdoor air supply-based risk mitigation strategy.

According to ASHRAE, the guidance still addresses the tactical commissioning and systems analysis needed to develop a Building Readiness Plan, increased filtration, air cleaning strategies, domestic and plumbing water systems, and overall improvements to a system’s ability to mitigate virus transmission.