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Care facilities

The challenge
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Natural ventilation is increasingly being recognised as a critical factor in managing air quality, airborne pathogens, bacteria,pollutants, allergens, and even toxins. 

 

And with a significant body of medical research and evidence supporting natural ventilation, there's every reason to improve your facilities right now.

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The solution
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Our SVPro Care solutions assist natural ventilation with clean, green, energy efficient solutions that can be self contained, or can integrate efficiently with existing air quality and comfort infrastructure to assist air change.

 

Scaled to suit, with low energy use.  Call now to find out more.

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Why ventilation and indoor air quality is so important
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"lack of ventilation or low ventilation rates are associated with increased infection rates or outbreaks of airborne diseases.  There is moderate evidence available to suggest that insufficient ventilation is associated with an increase of infection risk and favours the use of ventilation for airborne infection control" - Natural Ventilation for Infection Control in Health Care systems (WHO)

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"moisture is one of the most common causes of IAQ (indoor air quality) problmes in buildings... enabling growth of micro-organisms, microbial VOCs and allergens... strongly associated with adverse health outcomes" - Indoor Air Quality guide (ASHRAE)

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Indoor Air Quality overview

 

Poor indoor air quality may cause a range of health effects from mild and generally non-specific symptoms such as headaches, tiredness or lethargy to more severe effects such as aggravation of asthma and allergic responses.  Most of these conditions can also arise from a number of different causes other than the quality of the air you breathe. 

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Pollutants affecting indoor air can come from a multitude of sources; household products, human and animal activity, household products, and from the immediate external environment.  Hazardous substances well recognised include passive smoke, lead and asbestos, but also include gases such as carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which are relatively common in new products and dissipate over time.

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Pollen, bacteria and moulds, animals and dust mites are also common.

 

Recommended airflow

In health-care facilities, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends from 60-80 l/s (216 to 288m3/h) or airflow for each occupant, with even higher rates in high care areas.

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In corridors and general transient spaces, the WHO recommended level of airflow is 2.5 l/s/m3, equating to 225m3/h for a 25m2 room; the equivalent of about four (4) air changes per hour.

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SVPro solutions

SVPro solutions can help meet these requirements, with the added advantage of providing dehumidified, filtered air.  With careful system design, it is possible to integrate SVPro solution with existing HVAC systems, bringing the twin benefits of improved air quality and reduced operating cost of existing HVAC equipment.

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SVPro systems comprise of an array of solar collectors with integral filtering, configured into banks of up to 10, for a span of 20 metres.  Interconnection of multiple spans is the recommended approach where more than 20m2 of collection area is required.

Recommended air volumes are between 80 to 150 m3/h for each square meter of collector area. 

 

Each collector module is approximately 2m2:

Dimension in mm: (L x W x D) 1004 x 1970 x 300
Weight per module in kg: 10
Felt/Absorber 1.25 m2 absorber felt per m2 collector: 2 mm black polyester
Cover: 10 mm Polycarbonate (UV-resistant)

Pressure drop: 25 Pa / 50 m3/m2 collector
                         75 Pa / 100 m3/m2 collector
                         175 Pa / 150 m3/m2 collector

Efficiency: 70% at an air flow of 125m3/m2 collector
Max. energy output: Approx. 842 W/m2 collector
Average energy output: 500-800 kWh/m2 (depends on type of control system)

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SVPro system design

The SVPro solar air collector system is modular, allowing configuration and sizing as required.  Your ventilation engineer will specify design specifics, paying attention to heat and cooling loads, air flow volume, supply temperatures and humidity, air quality and ducting. 

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Fans with a volume and back-pressure rating suited to the method of storage must then be selected and with ducting specified adjustments made for HVAC integration, system inefficiencies such as convention losses, back pressures, friction co-efficients and installation design. 

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Additional options include temperature and humidity controllers, zone monitors, flow control and check valves, each of which must be matched to the system.

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References

Guide to Indoor Air Quality, Dept. Health and Ageing
Natural Ventilation for Infection Control in Health Care systems, WHO

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