If COVID-19 taught facilities managers and building engineers anything, it’s the importance of proper design and maintenance of air and water systems for stopping the spread of pathogens. But aside from Coronavirus, there are other deadly bugs we need to control if we are to create healthy environments for building occupants. Legionnaires’ disease is one of them.
What is Legionnaires’ disease?
Legionnaires’ disease is a serious respiratory illness caused by the bacterium Legionella pneumophila. It is typically contracted by inhaling small droplets of water that contain the bacteria and can occur when water vapor or mist from a contaminated source is inhaled into the lungs. Facility water and cooling systems can become a source of Legionella bacteria if they are not properly designed, installed, and maintained.
Outbreaks are common with facilities like hotels, vacation rentals, medical facilities and cruise ships. Public hot tubs, for example, present ideal conditions for Legionella pneumophila and are common sources for outbreaks. About 1 in 10 people who contract Legionnaires’ disease will die due to complications from the illness. In health care facilities, the mortality rate jumps to 1 in 4, according to the CDC.
Controlling the Spread
To minimize the risk of Legionnaires’ disease growing within water or cooling systems, it is important to follow best practices for the design, installation, and maintenance of these systems.
Water Cooler System Design. Design water and cooling systems to minimize the risk of Legionella growth and proliferation. This includes using materials that are resistant to corrosion and scale formation, as well as designing the system to allow for proper water flow and circulation.
Regular Maintenance. Regularly clean and maintain water and cooling systems to prevent the buildup of Legionella bacteria. This includes flushing the system to remove any sediment or debris and using water treatment chemicals to kill bacteria and prevent the growth of biofilm.
Temperature Control. Maintain your water and cooling systems at a temperature too high for Legionella bacteria to grow. This typically means keeping the water temperature preferably above 124°F (51°C), and below 68°F (20°C). (Source: CDC)
Control Your pH Levels. Legionella bacteria thrive in water with a pH between 6.0 and 8.5. To prevent the growth of these bacteria, it is important to maintain the pH of the water in the system outside this range. Studies show that a pH of 9.6 prevents the bacteria’s growth in cooling towers. (Source: Water Research).
Disinfection. Regularly disinfect water and cooling systems to kill any Legionella bacteria that may be present. This can be done using chemicals such as chlorine or monochloramine or by using UV light to kill the bacteria.
Risk Assessment. It is important to regularly assess the risk of Legionella growth in water and cooling systems. Implement appropriate control measures as needed. This may include regularly testing the water for the presence of Legionella bacteria and implementing additional measures such as water treatment or increased cleaning.
In addition to these measures, it is important to educate employees and building occupants about the risks of Legionnaires’ disease and how to prevent it. This may include providing information about the signs and symptoms of the disease and reminding people to wash their hands frequently to reduce the risk of infection.
Overall, the key to preventing Legionnaires’ disease from water and cooling systems is to properly design, install, and maintain these systems. By following these best practices, you can significantly reduce the risk of this serious and potentially life-threatening illness.
Are you finding it hard to procure office equipment? Is your supply closet running short on toilet paper? Supply chain issues are a global problem, and shortages are hitting every sector. Office managers in the U.S. are finding it hard to locate basic office supplies like paper, printer ink, lightbulbs and, yes, even toilet paper.
Trade experts say the global supply chain conundrum could be years away from resolving itself. So, many firms will need to adjust their procurement practices to locate alternative resources and manage rising costs. To that end, here are five tips for surviving the supply chain issues you’ll want to try out this year.
1. Barter with Competitors
Supply issues are prime times for beefing up your business relationships or calling in old favors. If you have excess resources, find a competing property owner who needs them and offer a trade. Such transactions could also include services-for-supplies too. Don’t be too proud. Cooperation helps the whole industry win. NOTE: Depending on where you do business, you may be required to report such bartering “profits” as taxable income. Check with your CPA.
2. Buy Used, Source Local
With international supply chains still struggling, many are looking to local and/or second-hand stores for procuring used supplies like office equipment or furniture. Look at both brick-and-mortar and online stores. On trading platforms like Craigslist, eBay or TradeMe you can easily filter searches by location to find products/services within a workable range for quick delivery. Buying used cuts down delivery time and gets the job done until you can find replacements. It’s also better for the environment!
3. Reduce Your Use
One upside to doing without is learning to live with less. Supply shortages are great opportunities to launch campaigns around efficiency and cost cutting. Use less paper products by transitioning to digital documents. Is your disposable coffee cup supply running low in the break room? Then buy your staff personlised mugs. Necessity is the mother of Invention, so use an unpredictable situation to promote conservation and frugality among your team and tenants.
4. Promote Flexible or Remote Working
By embracing the remote work trend, you can offset some supply use and costs to workers, many of whom will be happy to trade sweatpants and a much shorter commute. Besides using fewer resources, flexible work models offer more benefits for both employees and companies including increased productivity and higher retention.
5. Prepare for Tenant Backlash
Lack of supplies inevitably trickles down to your tenants. Sidestep complaints and backlash by preparing them before scarcity hits. Here are a few themes to weave into your tenant messaging.
Fairness. Some tenants may feel others are getting preferential treatment. Strong messaging is needed here. Any emails or correspondence needs to firmly dispense with such rumors before they grow. Maintain a voice of empathy and understanding around the shortages and their implications.
Transparency. Keep tenants abreast of delivery updates. Being in the dark is worse. When tenants can see there’s an end in sight, their patience increases dramatically. But even if you have no idea, be honest about your situation; sincerity does the heavy lifting when it comes to acceptance of a bad situation.
Collective Struggle. Take a “We’re in this together” approach. Groups get through things easier when there’s a feeling that everyone is sacrificing. However, this isn’t a time to point out how you’re the victim too; don’t unwittingly create a competition for “who’s got it worse.” Instead, stress collective sacrifice as a balm for individual angst and impatience.
The COVID pandemic increased awareness and use of relatively new decontamination methods for medical facilities. In addition to standard surface cleaning and disinfection, hospital managers employ vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) systems within negative pressure rooms to eliminate SARS-CoV-2. Sometimes referred to as “Deprox,” these systems distribute a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water within a room. The mixture is small enough to decontaminate areas that are too difficult or impossible to clean by hand.
However, VHPs must work in conjunction with HVAC systems to be safe and effective, and most functional descriptions put strict limits on an HVAC’s operation during decontamination. Use the following information to guide your design when connecting to VHPs.
HP Vapor vs Aerosol Systems
There are two methods for dispersing hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) for airborne disinfection. One is vapor phase hydrogen peroxide (VPHP) and the other is aerosolised hydrogen peroxide (aHP). The main difference being the size and concentration of the hydrogen peroxide as it leaves the system. VPHP systems produce much smaller particles and at higher concentration than aHPs. They are much closer to a gas than aHPs, which are more of a “fog” ranging from 5 and 20 μm in size.
Exposure Limits
Both VPHPs or aHPs require some downtime for operation and room exposure levels to return to normal. Decontamination cycles may take up to three hours to complete. Exposure to hydrogen peroxide vapor can be harmful, resulting in irritation to the eyes, nose and throat. The OSHA standard for permissible exposure limits to H2O2 is 1 part per million parts of air (ppm) averaged over an eight-hour work shift.
Functional Descriptions
Include these sections when writing a FD that includes VPHP or aHP for negative/positive pressure rooms.
Room Modes—Room modes include isolation, deprox and standby. During the deprox process, the HVAC system should be turned off and dampers closed to ensure the VHP system works effectively.
Closing Dampers—When switching from standby or isolation to deprox mode, factor in a lag time to allow dampers to fully close. For example:
If the room is switched to deprox mode, the deprox LED will flash on and off for 75 seconds whilst the room dampers are driving closed. Once the 75 seconds have passed, the LED will be enabled.
Velocity Pressure Setpoint—Include a deprox pressure setpoint when setting duct velocity pressure points.
If the room is put into deprox mode, the velocity pressure setpoint is reduced to the deprox velocity pressure setpoint (To be determined at time of commissioning).
Smoke and Fire Detectors
Particles from VPHP or aHP can set off fire and smoke detectors. Consider the implications for your HVAC system. Since HVAC systems are normally integrated into fire systems to ensure proper exhaust of smoke, a false alarm may affect your system.
Colder weather often brings spikes in COVID-19 and influenza cases. With this in mind, we should continue promoting vaccinations, mask wearing, social distancing, surface cleaning and handwashing inside your buildings. However, we shouldn’t forget about our HVAC systems; they also play an important role in stopping the spread of COVID. In fact, if not properly managed, these systems significantly contribute to virus transmission. To properly protect your facility’s visitors and workers this winter, prep your HVAC system the right way by following these guidelines.
Use an Air Dilution Strategy
Viruses like SARS-CoV-2 travel within tiny liquid droplets expelled through our coughs and sneezes. These droplets can range in size from larger particles (5-10 μm) to smaller ones (less than 5 μm). Larger droplets fall to the ground quickly, while smaller aerosols linger in the air much longer. Their hang time presents both a problem and an opportunity. The problem is that these tiny airborne particles can easily cluster together, becoming concentrated within small areas like offices. Concentration makes them more potent and contagious.
However, these clusters are also easily dispersed or “diluted” by adequate air flow. So, an effective dilution strategy is to keep a good mixture of air within every part of your building. It’s a similar idea to running vs standing water. Which is safer to drink? Here are some tips for an effective dilution strategy.
Increase Outside Air Flow
Increasing outside air flow helps dilute recirculated interior air and break up any high concentration particle clusters. The CDC recommends the following tips when introducing outside air flow into your interior spaces:
Disable demand-controlled ventilation (DCV) systems
Open outdoor air dampers beyond minimum settings
When conditions allow, open windows and external doors
Use stand-alone fans inside windows
Set indoor AC unit fan speeds to “on” instead of “auto”
Run your systems longer, 24/7 if possible
CAVEAT: Increasing outside air flow during very cold or very warm weather raises your energy costs and puts added stress on your system to maintain set points. So, some actions may only be practical during milder weather. Another concern is the introduction of pollutants and pollen into the building. For occupants with allergies, outside air could contain possible health risks from contaminants. Increasing outside air flow during very cold or very warm weather raises your energy costs and puts added stress on your system to maintain set points. So, some actions may only be practical during milder weather.
Another concern is the introduction of pollutants and pollen into the building. For occupants with allergies, outside air could contain possible health risks. Most higher-rated filters can catch pollen (which is between 5 -11 μm) so introduction of outside air through fans, open windows and doors pose the greater risk.
Target 5 Air Changes Per Hour
Your air change rate (ACH) is a measure of how often you replace the air within a space. However, ACH is a bit misleading since one cycle doesn’t equate to 100% removal. In fact, it takes longer than you’d expect to vacate any contaminants from a room.
“When we change air in a room,” explains Lance Jimmieson, of Jackson Engineering, “we’re not magically taking out all of the air that’s there and replacing it with fresh air. It comes in, mixes and turns over, and typically mixes between perimeter and center zones. So, we’ve got to remove it.”
Jimmieson advises targeting a minimum of 5 air changes/hr (12 cycles) and bases his recommendation on CDC data (Table B.1). “Even with ten air changes an hour, i.e. every 6 minutes, it’s still going to take half an hour to get rid of any traces of an aerosol in the room, so air change rates need to be relatively high,” he explains.
The choice of filter matters when trying to arrest droplets containing small contaminants like viruses. ASHRAE recommends a minimum MERV-13 grade or better for commercial buildings. MERV-13 through 16 can achieve a 95-99% average removal efficiency for particles from 0.3 to 1.0 μm.
High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters have an even higher performance, capturing 99.97% of particles with a size of 0.3 μm. However, their superior efficiency creates more pressure drop in your system, which will reduce airflow rates and therefore system performance.
CAVEAT Pressure drops from upgrading filters can have a significant impact on your HVAC system. In fact, most managers and owners will find it too difficult or impossible to retrofit their HVAC systems with HEPA filters without a costly or significant redesign. This hurdle is why ASHRAE recommends using portable systems with HEPA filters. Also, higher grade filters are costly and single use, so expect an uptick in operating costs.
Consider UV Germicidal Irradiation
Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) systems use short wavelength UV-C light to kill viruses and bacteria before they’re distributed by your ventilation system. UVGI systems for HVAC are usually mercury-based lamps or LEDs. As viruses pass through the HVAC system, the lamps “inactivate” any viruses captured by high efficiency filters or that move through the AHU.
UVGI lamps contribute to air sterilization, especially where outside air flow is restricted and/or dilution efforts are insufficient. However, UV-C does have limits. Jimmieson notes that one critical restriction that’s often overlooked is particle size. “By and large, a good rule of thumb is that if you’ve got a particle size that is bigger than 5 μm then you’re going to struggle to nuke that particle with UV light.”
It’s a fact that has implications for your filtration system, since low efficiency filters allow particles greater than 5 μm to pass through. If those larger particles are hosting viruses, then they may not be neutralized by your UVGI. “You really want to position the UVGI system downstream of a good quality filter to take the lumps out of the air,” Jimmieson recommends.
Many industries use pressurised rooms to stop cross-contamination between one area of a building and another. For example, semiconductor makers use positive pressure rooms (PPR) to ensure their integrated chips are free of contaminants in the air. Hospitals and clinics employ negative pressure rooms (NPR) to contain the spread of infectious diseases. The difference between positive vs negative pressure rooms is mostly one of pressure differential and air flow. Both approaches use air pressure differentials to control ventilation and contamination.
Pressure Differential
Anyone who’s ever let go of an un-knotted balloon has witnessed the propensity of air to move from a higher pressure area to a lower one. The bigger the pressure differential, the faster the balloon will fly around the room. Building managers use HVAC equipment, fans and ventilation systems to control this natural propensity of air to escape—to keep the “balloon” knotted as it were.
The natural movement of air without the aid of mechanical equipment like a fan is called “passive” air flow, and techs use passive air flow to keep debris and contaminants from entering or exiting a room. If done correctly, the result is a stable environment with lower or higher air pressure than the surrounding area.
What’s a Negative Pressure Room?
To create a NPR, HVAC professionals must move air out at a faster rate than it comes in. That is, a negative quantity of air maintained. The purpose is to control the direction of passive airflow. When someone opens the door of an NPR, negative pressure draws passive air inside, forming a barrier against the escape of pathogens or dust. Interior air then moves through a filtration system to remove contaminants before safely exiting the pressurised environment.
What’s a Positive Pressure Room?
Positive pressure rooms maintain a higher air pressure inside than the surrounding environment. Air escapes the room without letting in outside contaminated air. PPRs exist within surgical theatres and in vitro clinics where contamination is possible. PPR hospital rooms often house immunocompromised patients susceptible to infection or disease. Because PPRs form barriers to outside spaces, their HVAC systems must filter out any contaminants from the interior air while ensuring optimal pressure and safe air quality.
Air Tightness
Pressure room designers try to keep rooms as air tight as possible, but some leakage occurs through gaps in doors, windows and electrical outlets. Designers often outfit NPRs with ante rooms to minimise leakage. These entryways are also safe areas for removing PPE or as a failsafe against pressure loss. Airtightness is also a cost issue. The more leakage, the more energy required to maintain a room’s negative or positive pressure.
Air Comfort
Like any conditioned environment, pressurised rooms must also maintain humidity and air temperature to ensure comfort and safety. Air quality is particularly important for medical facilities, since suboptimal humidity levels can contribute to illness. To aid air quality, HVAC technicians design HVAC systems to include specific numbers of air changes per hour (ACH) based on the size of the room. ACH is a measure of how often air within a space is replaced every hour and is essential to combating contaminated, stale and unhealthy air.
Testing and Monitoring
Smoke tests are a common way to test the effectiveness of a pressurised room. They’re cheap and easy to administer, but aren’t continuous or highly accurate. During a smoke test, technicians create puffs of smoke next to known intakes like registers or under doorways. If the smoke flows inside or outside, then a pressure differential exists. The smoke just needs to move in the right direction. Electronic pressure monitors offer continuous, accurate monitoring, but they’re expensive to purchase and install. Still, accurate testing and consistent monitoring is the best way to maintain the effectiveness of a pressurised room. Inadequate or infrequent testing puts patients and others at risk.
Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic has extended the use of pressurised rooms to combat the disease. The idea has extended beyond the hospital room to include waiting rooms, triage, bathrooms and other areas that could contain contaminants or susceptible people.
While pressurised rooms are helpful for health care workers, patients and staff, they also present challenges to HVAC techs and facility managers. Expanding the number and size of pressurised areas in any building means paying more attention to resulting issues like high humidity levels, sticky entryways, mold growth, and increased energy costs. These are new challenges FMs and engineers will need to address as the built environment evolves to meet social change.
Technology has been reshaping both hard and soft services for years, but COVID-19 has accelerated that process. Owners and managers of larger portfolios tend to be early tech adopters—passing the efficiency and effectiveness on to their customers—but in a post-COVID world, SMBs and late adopters are finding themselves moving to CAFM systems to meet new regulations and tenant expectations. While new FM tools and adoption rates will vary from property to property, the overall result will be a bigger injection of digital tools and automation software into the FM toolbox because of COVID-19. Here are the biggest tech trends in the “new normal” of post-COVID facility management.
Workspace Management Systems
Social distancing requirements have foregrounded the need for workspace management. While some workers are eager to return to the office, others are hesitant, fearing infection. Managers from hospitals to highrises are pondering the best ways to keep occupants safe while avoiding costly building redesigns. Workspace management software will be a cost-effective solution to help this process. These specialized apps work with your BIM software to provide an overview of your entire portfolio’s floor plan. More importantly, they let you easily reconstruct spaces and experiment with new seating arrangements and easily identify and upcycle wasted space.
Coworking Space Tools
Hybrid work models are a growing trend in the post-pandemic workplace. In the U.S. 52% of workers now say they prefer splitting their work between home and the office, according to a 2021 study. Coworking office spaces are likely to fill the demand for more flexible, hybrid workspaces that accommodate workers moving in and out of the office. These shared spaces let workers save money by splitting the costs of rent, utilities, equipment and the like. Scheduling software for conference rooms and flexible workstations are essential for efficient resource utilization. Coworkers also need group calendars for planning shared events, and tenants can easily split utility costs by adopting an automated after-hours HVAC booking app.
Touchless Entry
To reduce cross contamination FMs will adopt more technologies that eliminate the touching of shared surfaces. Touchless visitor management systems like scanners, mobile apps or voice recognition help minimize contact with reception and kiosks. Instead of encountering a real person, visitors can scan a QR code with their smartphone or use a sign in app to gain building access. Hosts are then notified via email, SMS or voice call. Concerns around contamination are also pushing adoption of biometrics like voice and face recognition, which ensure more security and accuracy.
Occupancy Management
Occupancy management is a must for ensuring the safety and security of your customers and complying with thresholds. For large portfolios with hundreds of entry points, stationing personnel at entries and exits is costly and inaccurate. Plus, it places them in closer physical contact with others, which defeats the purpose. Instead, FMs are choosing occupancy software to manage visitor flow, which when integrated with touchless entry systems, provides an added value—occupancy tracking. By tracking occupants’ smartphones via bluetooth, FMs can run reports on total occupancy or filter by specific floor, zone or entry point.
Conclusion
Humans are the major “problem” when it comes to spreading viruses and worsening pandemics. Therefore, it’s not surprising that most of these post-COVID tech trends deal with the monitoring and management of human behavior. Yes, improving building ventilation is still important, as is ensuring sanitized surfaces and properly trained janitorial services. But, it’s the management of human behavior, the creation of safe communal spaces and the adoption of touchless tech that will bring the most security and best ROI. Still, monitoring of employees inevitably runs into privacy issues, and push back from unions and advocacy groups is (understandably) expected. To this end, FMs will need to balance privacy rights for the individual with the safety needs of the group in the future.
