https://www.aircuity.com/technology/optinet-applications/lab-demand-control-ventilation/
Laboratories and research facilities consume tremendous amounts of energy to ensure their lab areas are properly ventilated. With Aircuity's sytem of continuous monitoring and control, laboratory operators can gain insight to the actual air quality while optimizing ventilation rates for safety and energy efficiency.
Air Exchange Rates: How much is enough?
Determining proper air change rates in laboratories is often a debated topic amongst facility owners, operators, and safety personnel. The use of 100% outside air makes each air exchange costly, but ensuring a clean working environment for researchers and occupants is always the primary consideration. The reality is that setting a single air change rate to balance safety and energy consumption will not achieve either objective.
Knowledge is Key for Critical Environments
Aircuity’s lab DCV solution provides continuous monitoring of critical environments and automatically adjusts ventilation rates for safety and energy efficiency. Laboratory air has been found to be clean 98% of the time, and replacing clean air with clean air simply wastes energy. However, when dilution is required, the OptiNet system will sense and increase ventilation rates automatically.
Safety Benefits
Continuous monitoring of the lab environment gives safety personnel insight to what is happening on a 24 hour, 7 days a week basis. If an issue occurs in the middle of the night, ventilation rates will adjust automatically without the need for manual intervention. Additionally, safety personnel may review IEQ quality so that incidents can be identified, and persistent issues can be evaluated to improve lab practices.
Energy Benefits
The energy savings potential in critical environments is tremendous. Air change rates can typically be reduced to 4 ACH during occupied hours and 2 ACH during unoccupied time. The resulting energy savings can be as high as 50%!