COSI Receives Clean Air Award
The National Air Filtration Association (NAFA) has announced IS recipients of the Clean Air Awards for 2007. The Clean Air Award is presented each year to building owners and managers that take steps to significantly improve the quality of their indoor air by increasing the level of air filter efficiency and improving the protocol involving indoor air quality components of their HVAC system in 10 categories. Recipients must accumulate a total of at least 52 combined points in the categories.
Candidates are nominated by both NAFA members and members of the facility management community for the award, and must submit detailed and specific steps taken towards cleaning the indoor environment. A NAFA Certified Air Filter Specialist qualifies the submissions. Awards are judged by the NAFA Clean Air Award Committee and each recipient receives a custom designed trophy and recognition for their efforts.
The 2007 recipient companies that utilize "best air filtration practices" in their buildings are:
4 Houston Center-Crescent Real Estate Equities Ltd., Houston, Texas
580 Building-Colliers, Turley, Martin, Tucker, Cincinnati, Ohio
The Allied Building-Redico Management, Southfield, Michigan
Baylor Sciences Building, Waco, Texas
COSI, Columbus, Ohio
First National Building-Downtown Collection, Detroit, Michigan
International Paper Company-Prattville Mill, Prattville, Alabama
Kosair Children's Hospital-Norton Healthcare, Louisville, Kentucky
The Mayborn Museum Complex, Waco, Texas
McCoy Building Supply Centers, San Marcos, Texas
Millipore Corporation (two plants) -Bedford, Massachusetts and Jaffrey, New Hampshire
Oakland Commons I & II-The Farbman Group, Southfield, Michigan
SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York
Wells Fargo Plaza, Phoenix, Arizona
NAFA
The National Air Filtration Association (NAFA) is the trade association for heating, ventilating and air conditioning air filter manufacturers and distributors around the world. NAFA has over 650 members and provides educational programs on the benefits of clean indoor environments through their membership. NAFA also publishes The NAFA Guide to Air Filtration, 4"' Edition and the Installation, Operations and Maintenance of Air Filtration Systems, 2nd Edition. NAFA accredits individual members through their Certified Air Filter Specialist and NAFA Certified Technician programs, and products through the NAFA Certified Products program.
(The following is a further description of ach individual facility and the accomplishments towards receiving the Clean Air Award).
4 Houston Center-Crescent Real Estate Equities Ltd., Houston, Texas, is a 647,246 square foot facility that has a twelve story office building atop three retail levels and one parking level. Upgrades to all air handlers were completed by Filter Technology Company, Inc. of Houston, TX. Constructed in 1982, the year-long building HVAC system air filtration retrofit involved upgrades from MERV 6 to MERV 8 prefilters and II to 14 final filters. In addition, repairs or replacements were made to all units for gasketing and unit pressure reading gauges. There are monthly inspections made of all HVAC units and an annual coil cleaning and drain pan cleaning schedule.
580 Building-Colliers, Turley, Martin, Tucker, Cincinnati, Ohio, is a 519,000 Class A office building located in downtown Cincinnati and managed by Colliers Turley Martin Tucker. With the goals of increased air filtration and decreased energy use and labor cost, Cincinnati Air Filter Company helped design a filter system that involved removal of automatic roll filters and agglomerator units (installed in 1973) and installation of new holding frames and MERV 11 low-pressure drop filters and pressure reading gauges to all units. The massive project, completed over 4 weekends provided the 580 Building with cleaner air to equal its Class A building rating.
Allied Building-Redico Management, Southfield, Michigan, is a three-story in Southfield, Michigan, that undertook a major renovation of their HVAC system. The system was originally designed to have synthetic blanket prefilters and 65% bag filters were changed to MERV 8 pleats and MERV 14 rigid minipleat V-cell filters. All air handlers, coils, and drain pans were completely cleaned along with cleaning of the ducts in the building. Additionally, all surfaces near and around the coil have been coated with an antimicrobial substance. Large carbon impregnated synthetic blankets have been installed on air intakes located near possible fume intake. Finally, management reworked the system whereby all pooling of condensate water has been eliminated. Aero Filter, Incorporated, of Madison Heights, Michigan, is the filter supplier for the Allied Building.
Baylor Sciences Building, Waco, Texas, was designed to encourage an interactive science community and to support multidisciplinary collaborations in research and teaching. The 508,000 square foot of facility contains IS laboratories using 260 vent hoods to remove harmful gases and vapors. Twenty-two large HVAC units change the air 45 times each hour. Baylor removed all lower efficiency filters and replaced them with MERV 8 filters, using MERV 14 as final filters. All filters are gasketed before installation to assure there is no bypass. Detailed maintenance guideline sheets prescribe performance, frequency of change, equipment identification and tagging and recording procedures. Star Air and Glasfloss Industries worked with Baylor personnel to assure correct changeout schedules based on pressure gauge readings. As a result, Baylor has realized an overall reduction in total air filtration costs.
COSI, Columbus, Ohio, is one of Ohio's most visited science centers. Serving more than 19 million visitors since 1964, the center offers education and learning opportunities for kids and adults. Working with Ketchum & Walton Company, COSI upgraded their air filter system from MERV II to MERV 14 particulate filters and added a new molecular carbon filter downstream to protect artifacts housed in the Center. Next they replaced all gasketing and added or replaced pressure gauges on all of the units. Finally, they constructed a uniform maintenance and filter change schedule for all of their units.
First National Building-Downtown Collection, Detroit, Michigan, is a historic building located in downtown Detroit. Recently purchased by Northern Group, this building has been a landmark since 1922. Having various owners over the years, the building was maintained by some and not maintained by some. The new owners are anxious to get the building back to its original splendor and created a plan to upgrade all air handlers, discarding the MERV 3 filters and installing MERV 7 & 8. All ductwork and coils were cleaned and a program instituted to repair or replace all pressure gauges throughout the building. Any unit that did not have satisfactory filtration was retrofitted with a new filter rack and pleated filters installed. As a final item, gasketing was installed on all units. Aero Filter, Incorporated, helped supply all of the filters and make the necessary upgrades needed for the new owners.
International Paper Company-Prattville Mill, Prattville, Alabama. One of the most difficult places to achieve a Clean Air Award is at a large manufacturing facility. With the commitment of International Paper maintenance personnel and the help of Industrial Filtration Services of Silverhill, Alabama, the Prattville Mill achieved this goal. The mill was a cornucopia of low efficiency filters with some makeup air units having no filtration at all. Beginning with an updated filter list and list of areas that needed to be retrofitted, the Prattville Mill began a year-long program to improve its indoor air. All coils were cleaned and air handlers were retrofitted with MERV 11 or better filters. Gauges were calibrated and gasketing repaired and replaced along with unique filter applications applied to those units that had no filtration. One of the maintenance personnel commented that the air in the plant is now cleaner, "than most folks have in their home,” is a testimonial to the hard work and dedication of Mill HVAC personnel to achieve the NAFA Clean Air Award.
Kosair Children's Hospital-Norton Healthcare, Louisville, Kentucky, KCH is Kentucky's only full-service, free standing hospital exclusively for children. With 263 beds, KCH is in the top 20% of US hospitals in neonatal care and pediatric intensive care.
Working with Koch Filter Corporation of Louisville, Kentucky, Kosair maintenance personnel are sticklers when it comes to PM schedules. Recent upgrades include installation of pre-filtration that is coupled with a layer of carbon filtration that has eliminated any potential foul odors from coming into the facility from air intakes located near loading docks and other sources. HEPA filters are used in all mandatory spaces and work is in place to move toward HEPA filtration being used throughout the entire hospital. This, along with diligent attention being paid to gaskets on frames and filters helps insure the cleanest air is being supplied to their precious occupants (children). Constant monitoring of pressure gauges insures that filters being used are operating efficiently and to their fullest potential. Also, part of their normal PM schedule is routine coil cleaning which helps insure HVAC system efficiency.
The Mayborn Museum Complex, Waco, Texas, is, like all museums, libraries and archives, filled with items that cannot be replaced. With NAFA Certified Technicians on staff at Mayborn, air filters and systems are a high priority. The Museum has installed nylon-seal track seal and gasket systems in the filter racks with MERV 8 prefilters and MERV 14 final filters for particulates. Additional molecular filtration includes activated carbon trays to remove and clean the air of harmful gases and chemicals that can damage priceless artifacts. Working with Star Air and Glasfloss Industries, the Museum personnel have a detailed preventive maintenance program.
McCoy Building Supply Centers, San Marcos, Texas, are a locally owned and operated building supply company with stores and lumber years in 85 locations throughout Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Mississippi. Over a several year period, McCoy personnel have worked with the Joe Fly Company of Dallas, to reduce repairs costs to HVAC units by instituting a scheduled maintenance program on their HVAC units. First, they upgraded filtration to MERV 8, and installed holding frames with gasket seals to eliminate bypass. Coil cleaning was next on the list and all units, along with the store interiors, were cleaned and upgraded as needed. By their actions, McCoy has made a substantial investment in helping insure cleaner indoor air in their locations.
Millipore Corporation (two plants) -Bedford, Massachusetts and Jaffrey, New Hampshire, are two plants that produce products and services that improve the productivity in biopharmaceutical manufacturing and in clinical, analytical and research laboratories. Working with Air Filter Sales of Haverhill, MA, Millipore-Bedford replaced all of their high loft rigid cell filters with minipleat V-cell filters to reduce energy and labor costs. In addition, they certified their staff to NAFA NCT, who took what they had learned and repaired and replaced gasketing and spacer plates in all of the units to eliminate bypass. Electronic filter records are kept and all filters are changed based on pressure gauge readout. Millipore-Jaffrey upgraded their pleated filter to MERV II and replaced all HEPA filters with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) ULPA filters for the highest efficiency with the lowest pressure drop. These changes have substantially reduced pressure in the system and have resulted in energy savings for Millipore.
Oakland Commons I & II-The Farbman Group, Southfield, Michigan, are two identical buildings connected with a walkway. Management upgraded the HVAC system to accommodate MERV II high capacity pleats. They also added pressure reading gauges to all of their units, repaired and/or replaced gasketing on all units and instituted proper recordkeeping procedures for maintenance. With these upgrades and the assistance of Aero Filters, Incorporated, Oakland Commons is now pursuing even more upgrades in other areas to achieve LEED accreditation.
SUNY Medical University, Syracuse, New York, is Central New York's only academic medical center and Syracuse's largest employer. The hospital is devoted to cancer, neuroscience, pediatrics, cardiovascular and orthopedics.
The facility has 27 NAFA Certified Technicians (NCD that have, over the past year, replaced all of their MERV 13-14 lofted media filters (50-58 square foot of media) to MERV IS minipleat V-cell type filters (200 square foot of media). This resulted in lower pressure drop readings and longer life in-service which has resulted lower labor replacement cost. All high efficiency filters are prefiltered with MERV 6 filters.
Several air handlers required moisture eliminator filters and these were installed downstream of the coils. These filter upgrades were recommended and installation supervised by Edco Filter Sales of Syracuse.
Wells Fargo Plaza, Phoenix, Arizona, located in downtown Phoenix, Arizona is committed, as is Wells Fargo & Company to the environment. Wells Fargo has provided more that 720 million in financing for the development of LEED certified buildings. The Phoenix building won the BOMA Pacific Southwest award in 2003 for renovation. In addition, the building won Energy Star for being energy efficient. By upgrading their filtration to MERV II, Wells Fargo supplied by Air Energy Systems and Service of Phoenix has increased the cleanliness of their indoor air and helped the environment by reducing energy consumption.
