Q&A: Protecting Indoor Air From Outside Pollutants

A project lead from the Illinois ASHRAE Chapter shares how climate change will continue to impact air quality.

By Facility Executive
From the June 2024 Issue

 

Buildings are responsible for more than 35% of U.S. energy use and nearly 40% of energy-related CO2 emissions worldwide. While facility management teams focus on finding ways to emit less greenhouse gases, they also must consider how to avoid taking in unhealthy outdoor air. With the emergence of unprecedented weather events, from wildfires to hurricanes, there is a greater chance that the outdoor air may be negatively impacted. Facility management teams need to keep in mind that fine pollutant particles from other buildings and vehicles may also be polluting the air around their buildings.

Ultimately, buildings are more than structures; they’re dynamic environments where people live, work, and thrive. Now that the impacts of climate change are pushing pollution indoors, buildings must prepare for the inevitable climate disruptions ahead.

Protecting Indoor Air, outdoor air
(Photo: Adobe Stock)

For its part, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) offers a variety of resources on how buildings can prepare for these disruptions. To learn more about what buildings can do to prepare for how climate change will continue to impact air quality, Facility Executive spoke with Sumayyah Theron, project lead at the Illinois Chapter of ASHRAE, to discuss how air quality impacts building occupant health, proactive building management strategies, and why they’re needed to combat increasing climate crises.

Facility Executive: What are some of the most common indoor air concerns facility executives have today?

Sumayyah Theron: Some of the most common indoor air concerns are the prescience of VOCs, particulate matter, mold, carbon dioxide levels, which affect the comfort and health of building occupants.

FE: How is climate change pushing pollution indoors? What impact will this have on ventilation or air purification systems?

Theron: Climate change is pushing pollutants indoors by the increasing frequency of incidents like wildfires and heatwaves. These lead to a higher level of outdoor pollutants inside, like smoke. They can infiltrate the indoor environment. This can put a lot of strain on the HVAC systems because they’re working harder to filter out these extra pollutants, which can increase maintenance time and potentially could lead to an increase in energy consumption. If you’re working these systems too hard, you need to do more to maintain them—and you’re using more energy if your systems are over strained.

FE: Can HVAC systems shut down if they’re worked too hard?

Theron: It depends on the system and the design. It’s a case-by-case scenario, but there is a good buffer—all engineers typically over design their systems so there is a good buffer for overworking your systems; but eventually, they will break down if you’re using them too much.

FE: What is the danger of letting these pollutants get into buildings? How will this impact occupants?

Theron: There are so many health impacts for people—it impacts your production level, your concentration levels, it could trigger asthma reactions or create lung diseases, it could trigger allergies, it could also go as extreme as heart failure and causing cancer, because some of these pollutants are carcinogenic.

FE: What are some proactive building management strategies that help protect buildings from these pollutants?

Theron: One strategy is implementing energy-efficient HVAC systems with advanced filtration capabilities. Previously, the requirements for filtration were very low, and now they’re increasing the value of how good your filter is using smart building technologies to monitor and optimize air quality. A big thing to focus on is “if you cannot measure it, you can’t really manage it.” I always encourage having continuous indoor air quality monitoring, so you know where your problem areas are and where you can fix it. Regular maintenance is critical, and it’s important to be careful what you put inside your space. Try to find low environmental impact products to include in your space.

FE: How are legacy systems handling some of these indoor air quality challenges?

Theron: The older HVAC systems, some of them are in better shape than some of the newer systems. It’s like a snowflake—each building is different. But, keeping up with the maintenance, and keeping up with servicing that equipment properly, and making sure everything is running as it’s supposed to, that’s the best you can do for your equipment. You can do some upgrades on the building to make sure it’s not leaky, and no infiltration is coming into the building, and having the pressure in the building to be positive, this way you are pushing the air outside, instead of having the pollutants come inside.

FE: Building become a clean-air sanctuary when the outside air quality is low. Is this something you’ve heard as well?

Theron: It’s a haven. It’s your safe place inside. You want to trust that your natural environment outside is safe or would like to have the confidence that our home, our office, is not making us sick. That’s something very important. So, keeping up with standards, with codes, going above what the minimum code is requiring—I always say your minimum code is what you’re legally allowed to get away with your building. Make sure you have some sustainable and green goals for your building, and these don’t have to be something complicated; it can be something as simple as implementing cleaning practices in a building (i.e. don’t use toxic chemicals). At the beginning of COVID, I remember everyone was bleaching everything—and that’s so harmful for your health. Make sure what you’re using to clean isn’t causing bigger problems in the long run.

Identify where the major sources of VOCs or pollutants are—where are they coming from, and how can we mitigate them? Don’t buy something that has a high level of VOCs when you’re painting a wall or ceiling. Make sure the products you’re bringing in are not emitting harmful chemicals. The cleaning practices are important as well.

FE: What are some of the biggest innovations in HVAC systems today?

Theron: The biggest innovations are really the continuous monitoring, and the capabilities of having a real-life view of the data as its happening. It’s a very strong tool to have where you can monitor your space on a regular basis. If you know what’s happening, you’ll know how to fix it or address it. Filtration is getting better. Air purification systems are getting better.

FE: How do air purification products help support HVAC systems in buildings? Are they necessary to include?

Theron: It depends on the size of the building, and what kinds of systems are in place. Let’s say we have a high residential building—the system will not just be heating and cooling, it will also be bringing the outside air in, and that’s required by code. There’s a minimum that you need to bring in. The rooftop unit that’s bringing the air inside can be very simple, very basic, and it can be so complex. These units can have so many layers of filters and heat recovery systems, so you’re using the heat that you’re ejecting outside, instead of wasting all your heat. You can have full control over how much air you’re letting in. In the case of wildfires, you can close it out totally, so it prevents the smoke from coming in.

FE: Are more buildings starting to implement monitors in different rooms, so occupants can see what the air quality is like?

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Theron: This is a very good visual thing to see, so I love working with Attune sensors, because they’re platform is very user-friendly. You have a visual of all the sensors you have. Let’s say you have selected particulate matter and carbon dioxide, you can have the three icons and you can see it, and they produce nice graphs and offer more information.

A lot of clients like to have a display screen in the lobby of the building for users and occupants to see on that specific day what the air quality is, how good the building is performing, is it performing up to its design standards? Several green certifications, such as LEED and WELL, reward you with points for ongoing, continuous monitoring, and for sharing it with the building users. People like to see it. 

Do you have a comment? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below, or send an e-mail to the Editor at jen@groupc.com.

Check out all the recent HVAC Factor columns from Facility Executive magazine.

Climate Change, Columnists, Environment, Facilities Management, FacilityBlog, Featured, HVAC Factor Column, Magazine, Professional Development

air-quality, ASHRAE, Climate Change, Energy Efficiency, Energy Management, Facilities Management, Facility Management, Facility Managers, FE-June-2024, HVAC, HVAC Systems, Illinois, Illinois Chapter of ASHRAE, Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), occupant-health, pollutants

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