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Improving interior air quality and air movement is paramount according to ASHRAE's airborne infectious disease mitigation recommendations.
The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated the need to better understand and implement building design that enhances indoor air quality in churches. After all, a higher ratio of fresh air lowers virus transmission by diluting all contaminants.
Chad Leveritt, P.E., principal of Summit Consultants Inc., who has spent the past 16 years performing highly specialized mechanical design and energy analysis studies, notes churches need to consider improving air quality and air movement in accordance with the American Society for Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) airborne infectious disease mitigation recommendations.
A higher ratio of fresh air lowers virus transmission by diluting all contaminants.
Utilizing outside air ventilation is an obvious way to fight pathogens and improve air quality, and this can be accomplished in a variety of ways. Naturally, opening windows is the easiest way, but churches can also rely on air dampers to eliminate circulation; disable demand-controlled ventilation; add portable room air cleaners with MERV 13 filters to trap airborne viruses; introduce indoor air quality sensors; or even utilized Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI) technology to assist in the deactivation of microorganisms.
The degree to which each solution is applied would be dependent upon the facility type, potential risk and available budget.
Leveritt offers his top 5 ways for a church to ensure better air quality and explains the reasons why each method works.
1. Consider Higher Filtration Options
For most churches, Leveritt recommends moving up to the MERV 13 filters, which are typically found in hospitals and can help filter out COVID-19 according to public health and industry leaders. These remove at least 90% of E3 particles, 85% of E2 particles, and 50% of E1 particles.
“While this is something that many churches are turning to, before doing so, you need to check with your equipment vendors to ensure your equipment can handle the added pressure and higher-efficiency filters,” he says.
2. Install Standalone HEPA Filtration
By adding portable, self-contained high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration systems in high-occupancy areas, a church can easily and economically create a negative pressure isolation room that will meet both Occupational and Safety Health Administration (OSHA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) TB guidelines.
“This can reduce particulate count,” Leveritt says. “Not only is the intent of the system to try to capture some of the coronavirus if possible, but also the more you’re reducing the particulate count in a space, the stronger your immune system will be to handle a coronavirus.”
High quality air combined with a better immune systems gives you a better chance to fight any coronavirus—not just COVID-19.
3. Set Up Pressure Zones
By zoning dampers, a church can regulate room-to-room airflow. A zone damper can be used as part of a climate-control system to improve and maintain comfort levels for occupants and parishioners, and they can also help conserve energy by restricting heating and cooling in unoccupied areas.
By zoning dampers, a church can regulate room-to-room airflow.
“Closing dampers, opening dampers and adding additional outside air to the space are all things you can do to create ‘clean areas,’ and ‘dirty areas,’ which is similar to how hospitals are designed,” Leveritt says. “They essentially have a clean surgical suite, a lush, clean lobby and waiting area and maybe a dirty contamination suite.”
In the setting of a church, he recommends keeping lower pressure zones in the classrooms, meaning air is being pulled into these rooms in negative pressure zones, and in the corridor having positive pressure so there is no cross-air movement from classroom to classroom, keeping them isolated.
4. Utilize Bipolar Ionization
Bipolar ionization technology, which has already proved to be effective against SARS, releases charged atoms that attach to and deactivate harmful substances.
Integrated into HVAC systems, bipolar ionization uses specialized tubes that take oxygen molecules from the air and convert them into charged atoms that then cluster around microparticles, surrounding and deactivating harmful substances like airborne mold, bacteria, allergens, and viruses.
Integrated into HVAC systems, bipolar ionization uses specialized tubes that take oxygen molecules from the air and convert them into charged atoms that then cluster around microparticles.
“You can install these either as a duct-mounted array or they can be mounted in the space,” Leveritt says. “The ionizer creates these ions that are delivered either directly into the space or through the duct system into the room. The ions then attach themselves due to polarity, and as they form on the particles, they start to damage them and inhibit their ability to cause immune issues and eliminate the potential for the virus.”
5. Install UV Arrays
The FDA is on record recommending UVC radiation to help disinfectant air as it has effectively been used for decades to reduce the spread of bacteria.
Leveritt notes that churches must utilize a high-density array for best results, because you need a densely-spaced UV array for air disinfection.
“It has been shown in studies to kill coronaviruses, not just this one, and you can install them in the air handler or in the space,” Leveritt says. “You can have UV lights over certain surfaces and they even make a traditional LED troffer with a UV light installed on the backside and it pulls air over the troffer and through the light.”