Education
Clean air is key for optimal learning environments
SEMCO understands IAQ challenges in Educational Facilities
The COVID pandemic brought heightened awareness of the critical importance of increased continuous ventilation, proper air distribution and humidity control, changing the HVAC industry.
Good indoor air quality (IAQ) is essential for creating optimal learning environments. Ignoring this critical need can lead to an increase in short- and long-term health issues and absenteeism among students, faculty, and staff.
More specifically, educational facilities pose the following challenges:
- Close proximity: Students are in close contact for extended periods, making it easy for germs to spread.
- Pollutants: School facilities often contain a variety of indoor and outdoor pollutants like chemicals, dust, pollen, and mold, and these can trigger allergies and respiratory issues.
- Temperature and relative humidity: While essential for comfort and health, maintaining optimal temperature and humidity levels is a challenge in school buildings.
SEMCO is uniquely equipped with solutions for School Buildings
Ventilation rates that surpass the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) recommendations while simultaneously lowering operating costs, compared to conventional systems with inadequate ventilation rates.
Cleaner, healthier air through environmentally responsible systems compared to other energy recovery options
- The SEMCO® True 3Å® total energy recovery wheel is uniquely able of recovering the temperature and moisture from air exhausted from classrooms and restrooms while minimizing any transfer of indoor air contaminants. (Link to a separate page with info from John Fisher’s white paper about how carry carryover matters)
- Energy savings
- Occupant comfort is reached at higher thermostat settings by preconditioning the outdoor air with the highest level of energy efficiency and providing the low dewpoint supply air conditions to produce ideal humidity control. This substantially reduces the operating cost of a typical school facility.
- SEMCO Pinnacle® dedicated outdoor air systems (DOAS) allow for individual room heat pumps or VRF units to be downsized, thereby saving first cost, energy consumption and ceiling space.
- Easy-to-program recirculation mode is ideal for times when the building is unoccupied.
- From new constructions to renovations of historic campus buildings, SEMCO experts can provide an energy model to show the cost savings their solution offers from other options or existing systems. They can also, recommend a solution that helps earn valuable “Optimize Energy Performance” LEED points from the U.S. Green Building Council.
- Lower total up-front cost: Many schools realize significant savings in capital equipment and labor/installation costs over more conventional systems.
- Quiet operation: FläktGroup® SEMCO chilled beam systems eliminate the noise associated with unit ventilators in classrooms while providing ideal air distribution.
- Increased classroom-level control of temperature and humidity
- Minimal maintenance: SEMCO systems only need filters at the air handler units, which is dramatically fewer than heat pump-based systems. When employing SEMCO Pinnacle DOAS with chilled beams, there are no fans, condensate management or filters to be maintained at the classroom level. Since there is minimal equipment in the classroom, there is rarely a need to interrupt learning for maintenance.
- Configuration and customization options
SEMCO capabilities meet the needs of education settings
SEMCO, the indoor air quality experts, offer multi-tiered solutions that meet or exceed recommendations of ASHRAE for school facilities. ASHRAE recommends a ventilation rate of five to six times per hour (standard 62.1) to introduce new outside air to the building and to provide 15 cubic feet of air per person. Bringing outside air into the classrooms helps remove indoor pollutants and germs as well as maintain comfortable room temperature and humidity levels.
Here’s how SEMCO responds with cost-effective solutions to various levels of requirements in educational facilities:
- A simple air-handling unit like the ElitePro AHU or a small energy recovery unit like the FV or ElitePro pre-conditioner easily increase outdoor air levels.
- Adding a Pinnacle, EP, or ElitePro energy recovery unit will eliminate all air contaminants to less than 0.05%. Beyond preventing the potential spread of germs and illness, they provide the added benefit of saving money with energy recovery.
- The SEMCO® 3fficiency system (chilled beams, the NEUTON pump module, and Pinnacle package) is the ultimate integrated solution. It can increase outdoor air, control both temperature and humidity for the ultimate comfort, and eliminate contaminants… all while saving energy.
SEMCO Solutions Overview
Though 60 years of experience and world-class product development, FläktGroup SEMCO has offerings that will support every part of your critical project, from project planning to installation and commissioning and beyond with service plans and upgrade paths.
