A new HVAC design is expected so save an estimated $918,000 at the REC community center in Grapevine, TX. The savings is projected in operational and energy costs over the heating, cooling, and dehumidification units’ expected 25-year lifecycles.
We’ve got just enough time this month to open with some news from Chicago, where we are wrapping up another AHR Expo and ASHRAE meeting as we go to press.
What is the value of a healthy and productive human being in a building? If you go to work with a cold, work slowly, and perhaps infect your co-worker, how much money has your employer lost? What are the unseen influences of your office building, hospital room, classroom or home on your health and performance?
The debate about the need (or lack of a need) for humidification in buildings rages on. I recently had an interesting conversation with an engineer who specializes in desiccant technology, in particular, dehumidification for operating rooms where the temperature is lowered to keep clinicians wearing sterile gowns comfortable.
Hospitals comingle infectious agents at their strongest with humans at their weakest. Proper relative humidity may be the greatest remaining underused weapon against HAIs.