Air Management Services

Studies have proven that indoor air can be several times more polluted than outdoor air. Poor air quality leads to an increased incidence of health-related issues, which in turn can lead to increase in absenteeism and loss of productivity at work.

Read on to know about our range of offerings which can help you maintain high indoor air quality within your commercial space:

Duct Cleaning Services

The current COVID-19 pandemic has increased the awareness of improving indoor air quality. It has brought into focus the spread of virus, bacteria and other pathogens in our living and working spaces and the risk they pose for employees, workers, residents and consumers. In this situation, we cannot stress enough the importance of cleaning the ducts of your air conditioning systems.

Why is Duct Cleaning important?

Most people do not realise that airborne contaminants are drawn into your air conditioning ducts, and once they enter the air conditioned space, they end up polluting the indoor air. Duct cleaning helps eliminate bacteria and mold which form inside your ducts over a period of time. Regular duct cleaning ensures that the occupants breathe clean and pollution-free air. The National Air Duct Cleaners Association (NADCA), the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA), and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommend that the complete HVAC system should be cleaned to prevent re-contamination. This is achieved by removing the contaminants all the way from the entry of air to its exit including all internal surfaces of the airstream - air handling units, fans, coils, mixing boxes, variable air volume boxes, heat exchanges, condensate drain pans, ductwork and components in which air travels through or across.

Regular duct cleaning also improves the efficiency of the complete air conditioning system, extending its life, and ultimately saving energy and money.

How does Duct Cleaning work?

• Step 1: Shaking the contaminants loose by agitation.
  
  Removal of contaminants begins with the use of one or more agitation devices that are designed to loosen contaminants from the surfaces within the air conditioning system.
• Step 2: Moving the contaminants down the duct with the help of negative airflow.
  
  During cleaning, the entire HVAC system is placed under continuous negative pressure with a vacuum to prevent the spread of contaminants. This allows fine particles to be removed from the system as they become airborne, ensuring that these particles are not released into the living space when the system is turned on after cleaning.
• Step 3: Collecting the contaminants.
  
  This negative pressure also serves to extract the loosened contaminants, which are then collected and removed. After dislodging the debris, the contaminants are collected properly with the help of collectors. Often, HVAC system components collect significant amounts of debris and particulate matter during construction activities within a building. NADCA recommends that newly installed HVAC systems or HVAC systems undergoing renovation be verified clean and protected, before the system is permitted to operate.

Advantages of Duct Cleaning by Blue Star

Blue Star is a certified member of NADCA. Thus, strict guidelines and standards set by NADCA are followed by us for all our services. Our Air System Cleaning Specialist (ASCS), certified by NADCA, renders efficient service every single time regardless of the complexity of the project. Our service technicians have immense knowledge of the tools and tackles. They use equipment ranging from the widest range of brushes, innovative brush adapters and gears to achieve the best results, all in line with NADCA’s standards.

Strengths of Blue Star’s Duct Cleaning Services

• Compact
• Portable
• Quiet and quick operation
• Remote Controlled
• Displays the condition on a monitor
• Works on a system of blow and vacuum
• Offers video recording
• Easy access to corners and joints in a duct
• Provides clean air discharge

Unique Solutions from Blue Star

Robotic HVAC Duct Cleaning: The HVAC ducts are inspected and decontaminated using the robotic system ensuring maximum efficiency.

Disinfection: We use a Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) based chemical to disinfect the facility after the duct cleaning activity thereby killing all the unseen viruses, bacteria, fungi and other pathogens in the facility. This chemical releases nascent oxygen which will kill all of them resulting in a safe and healthy space. The area should not be used for 3 to 4 hours after the application of the chemical.

UVC Emitters

HVAC systems

Most often, the spread of COVID-19 from person-to-person is believed to happen due to close contact with someone infected (about 6 feet or 2 metres). This spread is thought to occur mainly via respiratory droplet nuclei produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes, like how influenza and other respiratory pathogens spread. These droplet nuclei can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled by them into their lungs.

For the most effective microbial control, UV germicidal emitters are installed on the supply side of an HVAC system, downstream from the cooling coil and above the drain pan. This location provides more effective biofilm and microbial control than in-duct UVC installations.

The recirculating air in HVAC systems creates redundancy in exposing microorganisms to UVC, ensuring multiple passes so the light energy is effective against large quantities of airborne microorganisms.

Installation of UVC Emitter in an Air Handling Unit

UVC Emitter for a Ducted System

Hand-held device for decontamination of surfaces infested with mold, bacteria or viruses:

The user slowly passes the device closely over the contaminated surface area, allowing the energy from the high output UVC Emitter to decontaminate surfaces. An aluminum safety shield prevents direct exposure to UVC energy, while also adding reflectance that increases the light’s effectiveness.

Steril Wand- A Hand-Held Device for Disinfection of Surfaces

Portable air and surface disinfectant

The mobile unit equipped with high output UVC Emitters provides a safe and effective way to decontaminate surfaces infested with mold, bacteria and viruses. The user wheels the mobile unit into the infested area, leaves the room and turns on the unit remotely, allowing the energy from high output UVC Emitters to decontaminate walls, table tops and other surfaces. UVC technology uses no chemicals, produces no ozone or other toxic contaminants.

MERV 13 FILTERS

MERV stands for Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value. It's an acronym created by ASHRAE to provide a scale showing the effectiveness of filters at removing particles of different sizes. In general, filters with high MERV ratings catch higher percentage of particles as well as smaller particles.

The size of a coronavirus particle is in the range of 80-160 nanometers i.e. 0.08 to 0.16 microns. The size is important because really small particles can get into spaces such as deep into your lung tissue, where it can find its way into the bloodstream. When you install a filter in the airstream of an HVAC system, the air has to go through it. Going through the filter material, the air encounters resistance.

Resistance depends on the type of filter material and the amount of area. A standard fiberglass filter doesn’t resist the air flow much, at least not when the filter is clean. As the filter loads up with the stuff it catches, the resistance increases.

Better efficiency filters have much smaller pores, allowing the filter to catch more pollutants from the airstream but also adding more resistance. The higher MERV filters have higher resistance. When you add more resistance, you can get a bigger pressure drop across the filter. And that’s where the problems begin. The blower in the air handling unit is rated for a certain amount of pressure drop. If you use a lot of it up just to get the air through the filter, there’s not much left to move the air through the rest of the system.

As per ISHRAE’s COVID-19 Guidelines, it is advisable to provide a MERV 13 or higher filter fitted on an Air Handling Unit. If a filter of higher filtering capability is retrofitted into an existing system, care has to be taken to ensure that the fan and motor capacities are adequate to handle the higher pressure drop.

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