Hybrid Filter Performance Testing: Air Quality and Airflow Study

For years, the importance of good Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) on our health and productivity has been the focus of experts and regulating bodies. In the last decade, organizations like ASHRAE and the U.S. Green Building Council have recommended that buildings upgrade MERV 8 filters. In fact in 2019, the California Building Code declared MERV 13 filters as a mandatory requirement for some building types. Then the COVID pandemic amplified the conversation about the benefits - and the costs - of the private and public sector swapping at scale.

"Buildings typically use MERV8 filters, which are designed to protect equipment and which capture about 50% of airborne particles. By contrast, MERV13 filters are designed to protect people and capture at least 80-90% of particles," explained Indoor Air Quality Expert Joseph Allen in the 2023 Harvard Public Health article titled "A healthy building starts with better ventilation." "Upgrading filters also helps to reduce outdoor pollution which penetrates into buildings, such as wildfire smoke. The cost to upgrade filtration from MERV8 to MERV13 works out to about $1.50 per month for a 5,000 square foot office, all-in: labor, filter material, energy."

But the trade doesn’t come without tradeoffs. While the filter costs appear to be insignificant, they can truly add up across larger academic and healthcare campuses and property portfolios. The cost is associated with the wear and tear on the house equipment. The higher the rating the more tightly woven the medium. Ventilation systems and air handlers work harder to overcome the higher pressure drop associated with higher efficiency filters and often the system needs to be rebalanced to ensure proper airflow. Many older schools, hospitals, and government buildings simply cannot afford to upgrade permanent equipment to accommodate better filters, nor can they risk triggering an equipment failure.

SafeGlobe®, an air filter manufacturing company in is on a mission to develop a hybrid filter. One that can achieve the protection of the MERV 13 without taxing the systems. The company teamed up with Microban® to engineer an antimicrobial, antifungal and antibacterial spray that is applied to the filter media essentially transforming a MERV 8 into a MERV 13. The goal is to provide a filter capable of removing 99% of harmful airborne particulate matter but also reduces HVAC energy consumption and operation costs.

“We are focused on efficiency and efficacy. We believe we’ve designed a better in the way of collecting particulate matter at a very high level of filtration while preserving airflow for energy savings,” said James Moldenhauer, CEO of SafeGlobe. “The product performed great in the lab, but we wanted to see how it performed in the field.”

CHALLENGE

SafeGlobe wanted to perform verification testing and needed a partner to do it in a real-world environment.  The data results would be critical to their ability to assure clients that the hybrid filter can achieve superior performance to a MERV 8. At the time, SafeGlobe was consulting with Charles Taylor Environmental, which provides industrial hygienist services to residential, commercial and industrial clients. Their conversation about air filters and the challenges of improving indoor air quality, led to an introduction with Polygon.

SOLUTION

Polygon’s West coast business leader, Victor Gamez-Bazan, took the reins. Victor and his team had been using real-time environmental sensors on construction jobs to produce alerts and document conditions for over 20 years. Victor solicited the Polygon Engineering team to reconfigure their ExactAire® IAQ sensors to support a test set up at a medical office building in Hawthorne, California. In just a month, Polygon Op Technicians installed the sensors in three different air handlers so that it read air flow in the ducting

Inside the air handlers where three filters types:

1. Treated filter: SafeGlobe Hybrid X Powered by Microban Technology, panel MERV8
2. Non-treated filter: Standard panel Merv 8
3. Control filter: Grainger pleated Merv 8

The system ran for several months measuring the air quality and airflow inside the air handler. Polygon’s ExactAire remote monitoring system is providing data by collecting and transmitting in real time. The information is provided to users in a dashboard to provide a single pane of glass view of the data.

RESULTS

As a result, SafeGlobe was able to conduct a real-world test of their filters. Their team observed conditions in real-time and downloaded charts and data to support their product development and sales process. With this information SafeGlobe was able to measure and document:

1. The variance of the particle count before and after each filter that measure 2.5 microns. This is to show the number of particles that each filter type can remove over any given period.
2. The pressure differential across each filter to show the efficiency over any given period of time.
3. Indication of when the filter has reached it's useful life and needs to be changed

After the analysis of the data, the team was able to conclude that the SafeGlobe Hybrid X HVAC air filters powered by Microban Technology maintains the lowest level of pressure drop and the highest level of particulate protection from entering through the air filter out of three filter types.

“The study we conducted with Polygon’s sensors, is a big step in validating the efficacy of the hybrid filter,” commented Moldenhauer. “It is important to our team that we are able to show clients what they can expect from this new product. The results should help all of us demonstrate the impact it could have on buildings. We are excited about how the monitoring technology can be applied to filter maintenance and servicing –we envision adding alerts for filter changes, pressure drops, or other key indicators of health.”

BENEFITS

Live Data – Understand how the filters were performing in real-time compared to ambient conditions and other filters both upstream and downstream of air handlers

Filter End of Life – The visualization of airflow provided an indication of whether the filter needs to be replaced

Documentation of Results – The data gives SafeGlobe and its customers confidence and confirmation that the Hybrid X HVAC filter is capable of reducing particulate matter better than a MERV8 with lower pressure drops.

About SafeGlobe – SafeGlobe filters are treated with Microban® anti-microbial technology that helps keep the air filter 99% cleaner, with continuous, long lasting, product protection preventing the growth of damaging bacteria, mold and mildew. Our filters meet all HEPA standards and have a MERV 8 filtration rating which traps smoke, lint, dust, dust mite debris, mold spores, pollen and pet dander, efficiently meeting HEPA standards. For more information about SafeGlobe visit www.safeglobeinc.com

For more information about how Polygon can help you maintain or measure IAQ in your space, visit https://www.polygongroup.com/en-US/services/remote-monitoring-and-control/indoor-air-quality/