The CDC has recommended a layered approach to reduce exposures to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The layered approach includes personal protective measures of physical distancing, wearing face masks, hand hygiene, and vaccination, in addition to building ventilation upgrades or improvements. While the personal protective measures are up to each individual and cannot be forced to be implemented, companies, schools, and hospitality providers are all spending money on building ventilation upgrades and improvements. According to the CDC guidelines, they typically rely on local HVAC and MEP service providers and their expertise in the ventilation upgrade solutions:

• Increase the introduction of outdoor air by opening outdoor air dampers beyond minimum settings to reduce or eliminate HVAC air recirculation.
• Open windows and doors, when weather conditions allow, to increase outdoor air flow.
• Use fans to increase the effectiveness of open windows.
• Ensure ventilation systems operate properly and provide acceptable indoor air quality for the current occupancy level for each space.
• Rebalance or adjust HVAC systems to increase total airflow to occupied spaces when possible.
• Turn off any demand-controlled ventilation (DCV) controls that reduce air supply based on occupancy or temperature during occupied hours.
• Improve the central air filtration to MERV 13 and above.
• Ensure restroom exhaust fans are functional and operating at the full capacity when the building is occupied.
• Inspect and maintain exhaust ventilation systems in areas such as kitchens, cooking areas, etc. Operate these systems any time these spaces are occupied.
• Use portable high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) fan/filtration systems to enhance air cleaning (especially in higher risk areas such as a nurse’s and doctor’s offices or areas frequently inhabited by people with a higher likelihood of having COVID-19 and/or an increased risk of getting COVID-19).
• Generate clean-to-less-clean air movement by evaluating and repositioning as necessary, the supply louvers, exhaust air grilles, and/or damper settings.
• Use ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) as a supplemental treatment to inactivate SARS-CoV-2 when options for increasing room ventilation and filtration are limited.
• In non-residential settings, run the HVAC system at maximum outside airflow for 2 hours before and after the building is occupied.

Most HVAC and MEP service providers today have provided HVAC upgrade and maintenance solutions for Covid-19 mitigation with the following ventilation strategies:

• Upgrade all HVAC filters to MERV 13 or highest-grade filters possible and replace 5 times per year.
• Assess and fine-tune all Mechanical Ventilation systems Board wide as well as maximize fresh air intake and minimize recirculation air in all HVAC systems.
• Execute Mechanical Ventilation upgrade projects in key indoor study, working or service spaces where required.
• Install HEPA units in all key indoor study, working or service spaces without Mechanical Ventilation.

These mechanical solutions are necessary, but not sufficient for Covid-19 mitigation. During the pandemic covid-19, the designed amount of outdoor air rate is not enough to reduce the risk of Covid-19 to a safe level. On the other hand, the effect of those mechanical upgrade solutions cannot be quantified. Lastly, the ventilation system operation is not smart enough to keep tracking real-time indoor environment air quality.

NBDair provides an add-on ventilation upgrade solution that is based on the smart air technology product suite - welSPACE. The welSPACE product suite is designed and developed along with the CDC and ASHRAE guidelines for the ventilation system upgrade. The welSPACE product suite integrates ventilation, filtration, disinfection equipment seamlessly via AIoT technology, uses the combined indoor air health parameters AQI, ACH, IRI together to make the indoor air health condition measurable, visible, and actionable, and uses advanced digital experience technology to drive indoor air health experience.

welSPACE’s product component Ventilation Controller allows

• to Intelligently control the outdoor air damper in the central HVAC unit to maximize the outdoor fresh air
• to increase the total air change per hour of the occupied space, when possible
• to ensure the ventilation system operates in an efficient manner .

It can run automatically to achieve the optimal results with measured indoor air health condition and can run based on the preset schedules.

welSPACE’s Window Actuator allows you to open and close windows automatically based on the measured outdoor and indoor air quality.

welSPACE’s Smart Fan runs in alignment with the Window Actuator to increase the effectiveness of opening of windows.

welSPACE’s Sensors and Smart Plugs monitor and control exhaust fans and exhaust ventilation systems in restrooms, kitchens, cooking areas, etc., to ensure functional and operating at full capacity.

welSPACE’s Air Box monitors the indoor air quality AQI and supports the measurement of indoor air health condition ACH and IRI.

welSPACE’s Air Purifiers use 4-stage HEPA filtration for more efficient filtering plus UV-C lamp disinfection for fast clean air filtration in user spaces.

welSPACE’s UV-C Sanitizer provides high sterilization Effect: natural bacteria in the air eliminated rate ≥ 90.0%, as a supplemental treatment to inactivate SARS-CoV-2 when options for increasing room ventilation and filtration are limited.

In addition,

welSPACE’s welCentrolManager provides central monitoring and management capability of all portable air ventilation, filtration, and disinfection equipment as well as indoor air health spaces.

welSPACE’s welFusion allows you to visualize the real time indoor air health and safety conditions with measurable parameters of AQI, ACH, and IRI, and gain a good user experience.

welSPACE’s welLight is a mobile APP that allows onsite managers or users to configure, manage indoor spaces and equipment, and monitor and analyze the real-time indoor air health dada.

NBDair's Ventilation Upgrade solution as an add-on to the traditional mechanical ventilation upgrade approach provides the best solution for HVAC and MEP service providers as well as the customers’ facility teams to ensure the CDC guidelines are followed in a measurable, automatic, and smart way.