Page 54 - College Planning & Management, March 2018

Case Histories REAL-WORLD SOLUTIONS
UWniversity Restores HVAC System Performance
HEN YOUR CAMPUS cumulation on the air distribution registers is home to 27,000 students, in the Health, Physical Education and indoor air quality (IAQ) is Recreation Building.
of utmost importance. Located in Fayette- ville, the University of Arkansas has 100 buildings served by approximately 150 air handling units (AHUs), each designed to condition and filter campus airstreams.
Rick Gragg, HVAC coordinator with the university’s Utility Operations Facility Operation department, has supervised a decade-long mission to improve IAQ by retrofitting campus AHUs with ultraviolet germicidal irradiation. The technology uses light in the ultraviolet-C (UV-C) spec- trum to remove biological growth from HVAC/R equipment, ensuring safe and clean air for students and faculty.
Gragg’s experience with UV-C began in 2008, when facilities personnel alerted him to complaints about biological growth ac-
Using this as a test case for UV-C, Gragg had his contractor retrofit the lights on two air handlers downstream of the coil that service the building. He chose the RLM Xtreme fix- tureless UV-C lamp system, manufactured by Santa-Clarita, California-based UV Resources.
Over a three-month period of UV-C treatment, measurements revealed a coil pressure drop decrease from nearly 1.0 inch to less than 0.8-inch of static pressure. This 2/10th of an inch reduction meant that the AHU fan didn’t need to strain to draw air through the plenum, providing energy savings and disinfection.
“Once the coil was cleaned and returned to its original ‘as-built’ specification, the system did not need to consume as much energy. As a result, we could lower the brake
The University of Arkansas achieved better IAQ and less energy consumption in their buildings with the help of UV-C from UV Resources.
horse power by 1.311 and save roughly $1,077 in annual energy costs,” reports Gragg.
Convinced of UV-C’s effectiveness, the university has continued to install the units ever since—48 to date—across campus as standard practice. The most recent applica- tion involved installing the technology in two air handling units in February 2018.
www.uvresources.com
By using Pall Water’s filters, the University of San Diego has solved an inconvenient, costly, and time-consuming problem for its maintenance team.
the lack of air conditioning in the Degheri Alumni Center,” says Steve Glover, facilities engineer, University of San Diego.
By using Pall Water’s filters, the Univer- sity of San Diego has solved an inconve- nient, costly, and time-consuming problem for its maintenance team. CPM
www.pallwater.com
IBetter Filters for Energy Efficiency
N 2014, the University of San Diego that took several hours and needed to began experiencing HVAC issues in occur every 4-14 days, impacting the main- several buildings across campus, tenance teams’ time and resources. Now,
particularly in the Degheri Alumni Center, a 28,000-square-foot administrative build- ing. Sediment buildup was causing cooling coils to clog, which prevented air condi- tioning units from operating properly.
As summertime approached, a rapid solution was needed to deliver comfortable temperatures to faculty, staff, and students. Pall Water’s 5-micron Polyfold filter bag was selected due to its strength and reli- ability. Immediately, the maintenance team noticed the positive impact of Pall Water’s solution, and could see the larger particles collected in the filters.
Previously, technicians had to manually back-flush coils on the roof of each affected building to remove the sediment and re- store proper HVAC functionality, a process
technicians spend 10 minutes swapping out Pall Water’s filters every 1-2 months. Tech- nicians can even determine when filters are nearing capacity via a gauge and daily measurements, enabling them to replace filters before the sediment buildup impacts building temperature.
“We called upon Pall Water to stop sediment buildup from clogging our HVAC systems and the University of San Diego got exactly what we asked for as
Pall Water’s Polypropylene Microfiber bag filters solved our problem. The techni- cians absolutely love the filters as they no longer waste several hours cleaning out clogged coils on the roof and our building occupants are pleased that they no longer have to file work orders complaining about
52 COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / MARCH 2018
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