How to Reduce the Cost of Ventilating Your Buildings

The Ventilation Penalty: High Ventilation = High Energy Costs

In most regions, the cost of ventilating facilities during the hot and cold months is a major driver for HVAC energy use by schools and businesses. Traditionally, ventilation has been the primary way to create a healthy and comfortable indoor environment. But this comes at a high cost. We hear from many facilities managers and engineers that ventilation can be very expensive, with the need to heat cold air in the winter and cool air in our increasingly hot summers. 

Just last month, ASHRAE further recognized the challenge with their new Standard 241, which advocates for the use of air cleaners, like Metalmark Tatama, in combination with outdoor air ventilation for meeting indoor air quality targets and controlling the spread of infectious aerosols. 

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And the limitations of ventilation were also made obvious last month with the wildfire smoke cloud that brought unprecedented air pollution to a large swath of the U.S. – areas that were hundreds and even thousands of miles from the fires themselves. The threat is forecast to continue throughout the year and the coming annual wildfire seasons. This is the new normal. 

Yet another barrier to ventilation is that day-to-day outdoor air in urban areas is often unhealthy to breathe. The American Lung Association says that over a third of Americans live in areas with unhealthy air. 

Many organizations rely exclusively on their HVAC systems for indoor air quality. But HVAC systems are primarily designed to control temperature. Typically they use MERV 8-14 filters which let through orders of magnitude more harmful, sub-micron particles – the vast majority of wildfire smoke, and the size that’s increasingly considered the most dangerous PMs – than the enhanced-HEPA filters used in Metalmark Tatama. 

Despite their limited ability to provide healthy air, the cost of HVAC air conditioning can be considerable. It can vary depending on several factors, including the size of the space being cooled, the size and efficiency of the system, the temperature differential between the indoor and outdoor,  and the cost of energy in the local area. Air conditioning can account for up to 27% of a commercial building’s energy use during the summer months.

Heating can be even more expensive than cooling, and can account for up to 45% of a building’s energy use during the winter months.

Tatama combines superior air cleaning with smart operations and low maintenance. Tatama could reduce the energy needed for reconditioning your outdoor air – and the ventilation penalty — significantly.

Superior air cleaning technology, like Tatama, could greatly reduce the cost of ventilating facilities during the hot and cold months – a significant expense for businesses and organizations.