Belfast Central School District Improves Student Environment
- Building: Belfast Central School Building
- Location: Belfast, New York
- Environment: Public School Building
- Project Goal: Reduce Student Absenteeism Due to Sickness
Nestled in western New York, the town of Belfast has seen its share of changes over the last 200 years. Belfast School District Superintendent Dr. Wendy Butler was looking to improve her students’ learning environment by focusing on the quality of air her students and staff breathe.
Challenge
In order to reduce airborne contaminants potentially leading to illnesses in the school, increasing the amount of clean air in the classroom without interrupting the learning environment was Dr. Butler’s goal. This included proper airflow, sound and ability to be clear of student tampering.
Two concealed ceiling mounted HealthWay fan filter units (FFU) were installed in the 13 classrooms. Each FFU was fitted into the existing T-bar ceiling and ducted to two return grilles. The existing classrooms were mechanically ventilated for outside air with unit ventilators and a MERV 8 pre-filter. HealthWay’s electronically enhanced filtration attracts and captures ultrafine particles without the pressure drop penalty of traditional MERV filtration. The engineering design and installation was coordinated by HealthWay partner Stark Tech of Buffalo, NY.
Results
Air Systems Balancing and Testing Service Inc. of Rochester, NY performed assessment testing in two classrooms. They were hired as an independent specialty testing contractor to test and document the efficacy of the FFU’s in two different classrooms.
Two smoke tests were conducted in each classroom and particulate readings were taken for 1 hour in 30 second intervals. The first test included both the unit ventilator and the FFUs in the “on” position. The unit ventilator was operating at low or medium speed while the FFUs were at 25% fan speed. The FFUs were then turned off and only unit ventilator readings were taken.
Visually, the smoke disappeared when the FFUs were in operation within 30 minutes. The unit ventilator did not clear the smoke within the allotted 60 minutes.
Particulate Removal – Looking at the raw data for particulates using a Lighthouse Solair 1100 particle counter, the FFU classrooms reduced 0.3 microns by 99.82% and 0.5 microns by 99.93% in the 30-minute time frame.
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