The UVAP in-duct system has been utilized commercially in hospitals, medical facilities and businesses worldwide. The U.S. Government has created a standard for this kind of application that states in part,"Ultraviolet light (C band) emitters/lamps shall be incorporated downstream of all cooling coils and above all drain pans to control airborne and surface microbial growth and transfer. Applied fixtures/lamps must be specifically manufactured for this purpose."
Our products meet these specifications and are already helping clean the air in several government facilities.
Some additional commercial installations are:
Merck Heart Institute - Phoenix, AZ
Bayer Laboratories - Clayton, NC
Veterans Hospital - Riviera Beach, FL
Convention Center - Davie, FL
Vero Beach Schools - Vero Beach, FL
Electric Light and Power-February 2000
In 1998, with 56 days of temperatures 100 F or more, it`s not surprising that utility bills in Dallas ran 15 to 35 percent higher than typical summers. Again, during the summer of 1999, record-breaking heat forced building operators to crank up their air conditioning systems-sometimes for 24 hours a day. But at the headquarters of Central & South West Corp. (CSW) both this year and last, building services technician David Lewis reports a significant decrease in energy usage. Through the brutal 1998 summer, he says, they were able to cool the near 500,000-sq. ft. building coasting along on a maximum of three, 300-ton chillers instead of the customary four. That amounts to an estimated 300+ kW reduction when factoring in the related equipment.
How did CSW manage to defy the statistics and save on chiller demand during record-breaking heat (Dallas`s second hottest summer ever)? Lewis attributes the reduced demand to the February 1998 installation of UVC germicidal lights...which ultimately made further use of the increased cooling efficiency with their "variable frequency drive" fan motors.
We... have eliminated our four-times-per-year coil, drain pan and plenum cleaning program and we no longer expose our maintenance people to the biocidal agents and other cleaning chemicals required for these tasks. The environmental benefit is a very big plus for CSW, not to mention a big cost-saver," said Lewis. "What we didn`t anticipate was the rather significant improvement in coil heat transfer efficiency, pressure drop and the subsequent lower fan rpm. This all results from having our coils continuously cleaned by the UVC lights. It also translates into a big power consumption reduction."
Lewis estimated that the improvement has yielded a conservative 28 percent reduction in total A/C system energy usage. This is mostly based on an energy cost of $0.054/kWh and the 300+ kWh savings over the 1998 summer`s 3,600 operating hours (five months), which likely exceeded $58,300. From that alone, the UVC light system paid for itself in less than five months.
Lewis also noted that coils have remained free of mold and organic buildup for nearly a year and a half without any chemical cleaning or biocidal treatment. "We regularly test samples taken from coil surfaces as well as our condensate water, and these samples repeatedly come back clean, so we`re confident that the lights are performing the desired germicidal function too."
...Facility supervisor Tom McKain also reported significant maintenance and energy benefits.
"These lights have the ability to restore a marginally-performing air handler to peak efficiency-bringing it back, essentially, to `as-new` condition," said McKain. "Once our coils were free of residue, we were able to rebalance all of our air handling units and reduce fan speed to a lower rpm. Due to this increase in efficiency, we estimate that the lights paid for themselves in about six months or less-much faster than we`d anticipated. And we haven`t had to clean our coils, drain pans and plenums since 1996."
Because of the wide variety of businesses that exist, commercial installation will be determined after a qualified HVAC specialist evaluates your requirements. Please contact us to schedule a convenient appointment.