Tag: HVAC equipment

Study Finds Building Mold Can Become Airborne, Highlighting Need for HVAC Test and Balance Services

Posted on by Lindsey Burbee

A recent study by The National Veterinary School of Toulouse in France revealed that mycotoxins can be inhaled and should be investigated as parameters of indoor air quality. This means that food fungus formerly thought to have no effect on air quality can actually become airborne and dangerous to building occupants. The results were published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, which is the American Society for Microbiology’s journal.

 

The researchers were interested in the fact that far less research exists on the dangers of airborne fungal toxins compared to fungal toxins in foods. The research team focused on three fungi commonly found in contaminated food: Penicillium brevicompactum, Aspergillus versicolor and Stachybortys chartarum. The research team conducted this study by creating a flowing stream of air over a piece of wallpaper contaminated with the three fungi and then analyzing the samples of air.

 

The results showed some toxins from the contaminated wallpaper were present on tiny particles of dust that were considered to be easily inhalable. If you own a restaurant, hotel, retail location or supermarket, these results should be eye-opening. These findings should amplify the importance of performing regularly scheduled HVAC test and balance services to ensure your HVAC system is operating as designed, and not contributing to organic growth.

 

As a business owner, it’s extremely important to make sure that your building’s HVAC system is working properly, not only for health reasons like the airborne fungus we specified above, but for first impressions of new customers. An unbalanced HVAC system may cause humidity problems, and this may result in fogged over windows in the morning, which prevents customers from being able to see inside. Poor air pressure can even make it difficult to open doors.

 

An unbalanced HVAC system can also result in uncomfortable temperatures and humidity that does damage to ceiling tiles and creates slippery floors which can become both a safety issue and legal liability. In kitchen environments, an unbalanced HVAC system can also cause smoke and odors to flow past the hood and  seep into the dining area.

 

Here at Melink we provide HVAC test and balance services, HVAC commissioning, indoor air quality tests and water balancing services that will help to alert you to dangerous conditions within your building.

 

 

 

Our 100 percent self-performing network of technicians ensure consistency across your locations. Mechanical systems fall out of alignment over time, you should keep your HVAC at peak performance by rebalancing it every three to five years. We also offer comfort investigations that can be conducted after HVAC complaints or negative building pressure issues.

 

Many of the largest chains in the US recommend Melink because of the convenience, consistency and cost effectiveness of our service. They also know that our reputation for integrity, quality and service is proven. As we’ve demonstrated, not only can overlooking the air quality of your building be dangerous for the health of the building’s occupants, but it can also cause a business owner to lose customers. In order to best help business owners decide if it may be time for an HVAC Test and Balance service, we’ve provided these questions to ask yourself:

 

Is there a draft at the front door of my building?

Is there leakage from units in the ceiling?

Is there condensation dripping from diffusers?

Are there noticeable hot and cold spots?

 

If you answered yes to any of these question, you are likely due for some servicing. Reach out to us today to improve the conditions of your building and increase the quality of your business!

A Balancing Act: Air Balance is an important part of HVAC maintenance

Posted on by Lindsey Burbee

When it comes to HVAC, no news is good news for restaurant facility managers. When you start hearing chatter about the building being hot and humid, drafty, smoky or uncomfortable, you know a problem has already taken root. It’s like a piano being out of tune. In addition to unhappy customers and employees, comfort issues are indicators of energy inefficiency within a system and air balance issues. So, what can facility managers do to prevent comfort and energy threats?

Identifying Common Problems

“Facility managers need to be trained on air balance and push it to their service contractors,” recommends Jeff Dover, resource manager at RFMA.

A good place to start is to gain a foundational understanding of building pressure and common HVAC deficiencies along with following seven easy steps to bring your restaurant back into tune. Most importantly, learn how to look for negative building pressure. Remember, the goal is to stay slightly positive in building pressure.

There are three methods to identify negative building pressure. The first and most reactive method is to monitor signals that your building is negative. These signs are hot/cold spots, entry doors that are hard to open, poor smoke capture, humidity, condensation dripping from diffusers and drafts.
Second, you can measure the building pressure yourself or with the help of your service contractor by using a pressure reading tool such as an anemometer to get a ballpark pressure reading. The third and most accurate method is to hire an air balance firm to check the facility’s building balance once a year. If comfort-related issues or a negative building pressure reading are observed, then an air balance needs to be scheduled.

Investigating the Cause

What causes a building to become negative or unbalanced? The usual offenders are equipment deficiencies, improper preventative maintenance programs, and adjustment errors such as kitchen staff fiddling with thermostats or service contractors opening or closing dampers.

 Here are 10 example deficiencies you or your service contractors should be on the lookout for:
  1. Exhaust fans in poor condition
  1. Supply air leaking above ceiling
  1. OA dampers improperly installed
  1. Exhaust fans not sealed to curb or hinged correctly
  1. Dirty compartment/coil in the RTU
  1. Tops of diffuser not insulated
  1. Filters improperly sized for hoods
  1. MUA not operating properly
  1. Dirty indoor/outdoor filters
  1. Worn/broken belts

Achieving Air Balance in HVAC

Once you’re ready to bring a facility back into tune, there are seven easy steps to complete. These steps may be completed by the facility manager alone, but are more likely in partnership with a service contractor. To get started, pull out the facility’s previous balance report to use as a base line for data.

One Principal Engineer at a hamburger fast food chain overseeing thousands of locations explains how her team uses the air balance report to get started with troubleshooting comfort issues.

“The reports really are my first line of defense when someone says ‘Hey, my store is cold/hot/humid,’ she points out. “The first thing I do is pull out the TAB report and see what it says. I look at the punch list and ask was anything wrong? Not fixed? It helps when I have to remotely assess or diagnose problems.”

7 Steps to HVAC Balance

Whether the previous air balance report has been reviewed or not, proceed to the following steps:

  1. Ask the onsite restaurant managers what the complaints are from employees and customers.
  1. Turn on all HVAC equipment.
    • Verify thermostats are set to “FAN ON”
  1. Check building pressure with the flame test in different areas around the restaurant (Figure 3)
  1. Observe smoke capture
    • Is the hood in the correct overhang position?
    • Are there drafts along the cook line?
  1. Check for common comfort issues (hot/cold spots, entry doors that are hard to open, poor smoke capture, humidity, condensation dripping from diffusers and drafts).
  1. Inspect the equipment.
    • Are the filters clean?
    • Are the belts in good condition?
    • Are the exhaust fan wheels clean?
  1. Determine an intervention plan.
    • If some preventative maintenance actions and/or repairs need to happen, start with the service contractor.
    • If equipment is inoperable, have it repaired or replaced.
    1. If the preventative maintenance actions are in order and the problems persist, call in a certified air balance company that has experience with restaurants like yours.
Facility managers need to trust that their service contractors will notify them of airflow-related issues. Those technicians are out on the roofs and looking at the HVAC system components more than anyone else. If the restaurant has negative pressure or other out-of-tune symptoms, the service contractor needs to inform the facility manager right away. After all, you want your customers and employees to continue singing your praises. 
Air Balance in HVAC

What to know about choosing an air balance contractor

Posted on by Lindsey Burbee

Due to the skill level required and equipment needed, facility managers and mechanical contractors hire professional test and balance contractors to bring buildings into balance at the end of construction, remodels, rebalances for existing buildings and equipment changes. When HVAC equipment is installed and started up, it may not function according to design specification and eventually will delineate from proper operation if not corrected. 

Facility managers and mechanical contractors also bring in TAB contractors to investigate HVAC comfort problems. Are you aware that most HVAC problems stem from poorly maintained HVAC equipment or performance assumptions?

Selecting a balancing firm can be tricky business, but it doesn’t need to be. Following are criteria for choosing a balancing contractor, based on our experience during the past 30 years. We hope our perspective will serve you.

  • Use a certified firm
  • There are two main certification organizations:
  • Look for thoroughness. Like any service, you want to be sure your vendor is concerned about the details.
  • Look for integrity. Since most of the value of an air balance is invisible, you need a vendor you can trust.
  • Experience with your industry. HVAC systems differ among restaurants, retail stores, hotels and hospitals. Make sure your balancing partner is familiar with your type of facility needs.
  • Maintain objectivity. Have a third party firm balance your HVAC system to prevent shortcuts and misreporting.
  • Hire directly. Avoid conflicts of interest by hiring the balance partner yourself.
 Air balance report necessities
  1. Air flow measurements and adjustments
  2. Punch list with images
  • Punch list items refer to discrepancies with the design prints. For example, the prints might show there is a diffuser in the rest room, but the facility does not have it.
  • HVAC equipment data
    • Make, model, serial number, fan/motor data, voltage, belt size, equipment condition, amperage, pulley size, etc.
  • Building pressurization
    • Reading of the balanced building pressure

The above list includes the basic deliverables you should expect from an air balance report. You can read our article  How to read a Melink Test & Balance Report for a visual example of an air balance report.

To prepare for the service, a balancing firm will request the design prints of the facility and inspect any previous balance reports. In many cases with existing buildings, prints and reports are unavailable. If that happens, the air balance technician will have to work from best practice measurements. This is one of many situations where having an experienced and certified balancer is an asset because of the knowledge required to do this well.

Once onsite, the balance technician will briefly talk to your management staff and ask about any HVAC-related issues they are experiencing. A common complaint of restaurant facilities is a hot kitchen, which can be indicative of a rooftop unit with dirty blower wheels or filters, as well as loose belts on a failed compressor. These complaints give the balance technician an idea of where to begin.

Next, the balancer will spend time inspecting and measuring the equipment on the roof. He or she will record RPMs and amps, check exhaust fans and look for basic adjustments. Then the balancer will go back inside to check building pressure and take measurements of the airflow. All of this data will tell the technician what he or she needs to do. After more adjusting, such as dampers or RTU belt tightness, and measuring the effects, the technician will bring the HVAC ecosystem back to design standard.

At that point, pressures and measurements are then documented in a report. In the case of a Melink balance, the technician will also check thermostats and train staff on the proper settings, if requested by the manager. Findings will be explained to the manager as well. Finally, the facility manager or project manager will receive the report after it has gone through quality inspection.

ADDITIONAL READING:
Sources:
  • DuChane, Greg. “Optimizing Air Balance Report Data.” Trane Tracks (Apr.2015): n. pag. Trane. Web.
  • “NEBB.” International Certification, High Performance Building Systems. N.p., n.d. Web. Sept.1, 2015.
  • Prager, Ron. “Demystifying HVAC: Why Test and Balance?” (n.d.): n. pag. Web. Sept. 1, 2015.