Indoor air quality that is healthy and comfortable is not always easy to come by. Achieving it requires the right combination of technical expertise, equipment, and at times, creativity. This is especially true for some of our healthcare customers, who require the highest standards of air quality for their facilities. Whether it is for a lab, operating room, or patient room, the need for healthy purified air is imperative. Medical facility HVAC systems, such as these, are a specialty of ours here in southern Oregon.
We recently worked on a system for a medical lab, which called for some of this out-of-the-box creative problem solving. The facility required that 100 percent of the air be fresh at all times with no air recirculation. As a result, their current system would not keep the indoor air at the desired temperature during extended periods of outside freezing temperatures.
A typical solution to correct this would involve an increase in the size of the system. This would include installing larger boilers, ducting, and a new coil mounted in the air handler. However, this solution also would require shutting the lab down for a period of time—and this was not going to be feasible for them.
So, we worked up different option that would go, quite literally, outside the facility. We installed a heater specifically for the outside air that would come on when the outside temperature dropped below a certain point. The lab did not have to close for the work to be done, and now the indoor air temperature holds when the outside air is freezing for extended periods of time.
The experience and expertise of our team is an invaluable asset in our ability to provide customers with unconventional solutions when the “tried-and-true” will not suffice. From creative thinking in design to installation, our team excels at getting the right solutions that work for our customers.
Shown in this photo is a makeup air unit mounted at ground level and ducted up to the inlet of the air handler. The inlet of the makeup air unit is also elevated to prevent flue gasses from entering it. The existing outside air hoods are relocated to the face of the new duct so in warmer temperatures, air is still drawn through them.