Prior to the advent of central HVAC systems, indoor air quality (IAQ) in buildings was a non-issue – outside air was just an open window away. But in contemporary sealed structures, HVAC systems control temperature and humidity, and are responsible for IAQ, which is managed by constantly replacing contaminated indoor air with outside air.
This practice is necessitated due to indoor-generated molecular contaminants like CO2, formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). With this wasteful and outdated approach, a building’s entire air volume is completely replaced by outside air multiple times (as many as 20) every day.
Conversely, indoor air, which has already incurred the expense of being cooled or heated, as well as humidified or dehumidified, simply gets discarded. Conditioning replacement air imposes a continuous load on HVAC systems and accounts for a disproportionately large fraction of the entire energy consumption used for heating or air conditioning. In addition, replacement air may introduce outdoor pollutants, including fumes and particles, which must be filtered before entering the building, adding operational costs like filter replacement and fan energy, and, at times, actually even degrading indoor air quality.
enVerid’s HLR® (HVAC Load Reduction) technology is completely changing the current practice and presenting a novel approach for IAQ that significantly reduces HVAC energy consumption. The HLR module selectively removes the molecular contaminants, including CO2, VOCs and formaldehyde, from conditioned indoor air. The elimination of these indoor contaminants maintains IAQ, minimizes the use of outside air, and achieves, on average, 20% energy savings and a greater than 40% reduction in peak HVAC load.
enVerid HLR modules are easily retrofitted onto a wide variety of existing HVAC systems, in many types of buildings, and the ROI for these retrofits can be very short, especially in warmer and humid climates where cooling costs are acutely high. Exceptional energy preservation economics and diverse functional benefits make enVerid technology stand in stark contrast to air replacement as the new solution of choice for existing and new buildings.