UV-C can improve air quality

Even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the health and safety of guests and employees was of paramount importance to hotels. With the pandemic’s arrival—and consumer’s increased interest in the quality of the air that they breathe—that concern reached even greater levels.

A major focus for health and safety has turned to the quality of the air that circulates inside of properties through HVAC and PTAC systems, and hoteliers have looked to the manufacturers of these products to help them achieve the best air quality possible.

“This pandemic has greatly increased consumer awareness of indoor air quality and has highlighted HVAC system performance capabilities,” said Jerad Adams, director, commercial product management, Friedrich Air Conditioning Co. “The lodging and hospitality industry found their business models particularly exposed. This has led to many hoteliers launching clean room initiatives and Friedrich has received many requests for antibacterial, antimicrobial, HEPA and high MERV filtration products for lodging applications.”

Guests want to know that the hotels they are staying in are providing a safe environment. “Ensuring a clean hotel environment is about more than health,” said Brigitte Mader-Urschel, commercial director for HVAC, GE Appliances. “It is about trust. Who do guests trust to keep them safe during a stay away from home? According to a study by The Hague Hotel School, nearly 70% of hotel guests rank hygiene and cleanliness, including the absence of bad odors and smells, as the most important factor when it comes to choosing a hotel.”

The recent spike in the number of COVID cases, in part due to the Delta variant, has proven that a key to the return of travel is stopping the spread of the virus wherever possible. “Installing an air disinfection system is a great way to reduce the risk of business disruption and mitigates the risk with customers,” said Eric Nelson, environmental application engineer, Heraeus Noblelight America LLC, which manufactures products under the Soluva line. “It builds that assertiveness, which a lot of people are looking for, especially people who are not choosing to vaccinate.”

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization all agree that COVID-19 pathogens aerosolize, floating as small particles in the air and ultimately spreading the virus from an infected person to others in the room.

A number of experts have said that UV-C light, also known as ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI), technology is the most reliable and effective way to disinfect indoor air from these types of harmful particles.

“UV technology, and its effective disinfectant properties, have been well known for over 100 years,” said Nelson. “Heraeus actually invented the very first UV bulb over 100 years ago and used it for water disinfection applications. And it’s been well known to also be used in surface disinfection and air disinfection for many years… It all basically functions with the same principle, which is that all microbes, and really all organic life forms, are sensitive to a high, energetic UV wavelength.”

He added, “By producing these low wavelength UVs through artificial means, we’re able to produce a radiation source that affects all living organisms. Basically, how it functions is UV light penetrates through cell walls and disrupts the DNA of a microbe, which prevents it from being able to reproduce or spread.”

With its high effectiveness, manufacturers have turned to this technology for their air filtration efforts. GE Appliances Air & Water Solutions offers an industry-exclusive kit for GE Zoneline PTACs that uses UV-C light technology. “The GE Zoneline UV-C solution is a perfect fit kit for Zoneline PTACs, and is designed to treat indoor air as it cycles through the unit,” said Mader-Urschel. “A silicone optics lens triples the light intensity to maximize the efficiency of the UV-C treatment.”

She added, “The new UV-C kit is customized for GE Zoneline PTACs and can be retrofit to existing products. It can also be added to new units. Soon, we’ll also offer GE Zoneline units with UV-C-technology factory installed.”

Friedrich launched FreshAire UV as part of its FreshAire IAQ offering. “We offer two unique UV accessory products; our UVT1 is a single lamp germicidal UV kit and our UVL1 is a UV LED light kit ideal for limited space applications,” said Adams. “Both optional accessory products are ideal to address the dark, damp and cool environment of the indoor evaporator coil, as well as destroy bacteria, viruses and mold in the air stream. FreshAire UV systems are tested and validated against bacteria, viruses, mold and fungus, to achieve up to a 99.999% reduction of microorganisms in surface and airstream applications.”

Heraeus offers a number of UV-C disinfection devices through its Soluva product line. The Soluva Air D is installed in ventilation systems or retrofitted into existing systems. In the system, the Air D absorbed air flow is disinfected with UV light and released back into the room without any germs.