Air Conditioning Heating and Ventilation
Product Information
The product is designed to provide insights into creating
healthier indoor environments in the hospitality industry. It aims
to address the need for improved safety and cleanliness in hotels
in order to attract customers and ensure their well-being. The
product offers quantifiable benefits in terms of health and
infection control, sleep quality, and security and stress
reduction. It also provides actionable strategies and solutions for
creating and sustaining healthier hotel environments.
Quantifiable Benefits
- Health and Infection Control: Low humidity can
increase virus survival time in the air. Touchless access and
mobile check-in options can reduce customers’ perceived risk. - Sleep Quality: Air temperature and lighting
can impact sleep quality. The product offers solutions to regulate
room temperature and provide appropriate lighting at the right time
of day. - Security and Stress: The product aims to
create a sense of security, reducing stress-induced hormones that
can suppress the immune system.
Actionable Strategies and Solutions
The product recommends a layered defense approach to reduce risk
and maximize benefits. It provides expert guidance and solutions in
the following areas:
Ventilation
- Strategies for improving ventilation
- Solutions to enhance ventilation systems
Filtration
- Strategies for effective filtration
- Solutions that include a HEPA filter, which is 99.97% effective
for particles that are 0.3 microns or larger
Controls and Services
- Strategies for performance assessment and demand control
ventilation - Solutions for IAQ monitoring, data analytics, and indoor air
quality assessments - Additional services like retro-commissioning and wellness
services
Product Usage Instructions
Follow the instructions below to effectively use the
product:
- Assess the current state of your hotel’s indoor environment and
identify areas for improvement. - Implement the recommended strategies and solutions provided by
the product, focusing on ventilation, filtration, and
controls. - Ensure proper installation of any equipment or systems
recommended by the product. - Regularly monitor and assess the performance of your hotel’s
indoor air quality using the provided data analytics and IAQ
monitoring tools. - Make necessary adjustments to maintain optimal indoor air
quality and ensure the well-being of your guests. - Consider additional services like retro-commissioning and
wellness services to further enhance the performance of your
hotel.
By following these usage instructions, you can create and
sustain a healthier indoor environment in your hotel, improving
safety, attracting customers, and maximizing benefits.
INSIGHTS INTO HEALTHIER INDOOR ENVIRONMENTS: HOSPITALITY
The hospitality industry has been one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. As hotel owners and operators look to rebound from historically low occupancy rates, they must address safety concerns to restore guest confidence and healthy building strategies are a key. A healthier indoor environment can help promote guest and employee safety in the short term, while enhancing the guest experience well into the future.
THE NEED The ability to safely welcome back guests is critical to the very survival of many hotels and the financial well-being of the millions of people they employ. Current evidence has not identified hotel buildings among the highest-risk environments for COVID-19 transmission or superspreading events.1 Still, hotels must improve perceptions of real and perceived safety concerns through risk reduction strategies and education in order to attract customers to visit.2
In spring 2020, G20 countries saw more than 75% declines in hotel occupancy.2 Preliminary research suggests that around 40% of hotel customers are willing to pay more for increased safety precautions.3 Enhanced cleaning and hygiene practices rank as guests’ number two priority, behind price.4
THE QUANTIFIABLE BENEFITS OF HEALTHIER HOTELS
Creating healthier indoor environments is essential to combating the spread of COVID-19 and continuing to reopen the industry. But research has shown the benefits go beyond infection control. Factors including humidity, lighting, noise and even a sense of security can impact guest sleep, concentration and overall health. With this in mind, addressing the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic also presents opportunities to improve the guest experience and deliver on shifting expectations moving forward.
HEALTH AND INFECTION CONTROL
Low humidity can increase virus survival time in the air.5
Touchless access may be highly visible and reduce customers’ perceived risk. The use
of mobile and kiosk checkin machines also facilitates distancing and minimizes personal interaction.6
SLEEP QUALITY
There is a body of literature
that supports that air temperature may be associated with sleep quality.7 In fact, common
complaints from hotel guests include difficulty regulating room temperature.
One of the greatest potential impacts of lighting, both during the day and at night, is its effect on sleep. It is well studied that providing enough light at the right time of day (e.g., in the morning) may improve sleep quality.8
SECURITY AND STRESS
When the body’s sense of security is threatened, a
cascade of biological “flight or fight” responses are triggered, producing
stress-induced hormones like adrenaline and cortisol.9
Over time, elevated levels of these hormones in the body can suppress the immune system
and exacerbate other inflammatory conditions.10
ASSESSMENTS OPERATIONS
UPGRADES
ACTIONABLE STRATEGIES AND SOLUTIONS
There is no single strategy for creating and sustaining healthier hotel environments. Carrier can help inspire confidence in returning to normal with a layered defense approach, implementing all levels of control strategies, which can help reduce risk and maximize benefits.
For engineering controls, Carrier can provide expert guidance to help support hospitality customers with solutions and services for the entire lifecycle. We’ve outlined a few specific areas here.
V E N T I L AT I O N
Strategies
· Buildings should eliminate or reduce air recirculation improving the intake of fresh outdoor air to the greatest extent possible.
· The use of active chilled beams for building air conditioning can provide the opportunity to achieve low sound levels since fans or compressors are not located in or near occupied spaces.11
Solutions
· Our rooftops unit (RTU) can improve the intake of fresh outdoor air, providing a reliable, flexible and energy-efficient solution for healthier indoor environments.
· Our air handling units (AHU) provide a cost-effective improvement by inhibiting bacterial and microbial growth on the interior of the unit.
F I LT R AT I O N
Strategies
· In buildings with mechanical ventilation systems, existing filters can be upgraded to filters with efficiency ratings of at least F7 (ePM2.5 >65%), and up to the highest fine particle classification or even HEPA filters, if the available pressure drop of the system enables.
· Portable air cleaners with high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters may be useful to supplement fresh and clean air and reduce exposures to airborne particles. And because potential viral sources could be in various locations within a room, it may be beneficial to have several units that meet the target clean air delivery rate (CADR) values rather than a single larger unit. Portable units are also recommended when budget constraints prevent other recommended capital improvements.
Solutions
· Carrier filtration technologies include various ePM filters and HEPA filters for particulate matter. Carrier also offers devices using UVC light, which are intended to target pathogens, and UV photocatalytic oxidation to help remove volatile organic compounds and improve indoor air quality (IAQ).
· Carrier’s OptiCleanTM air scrubber uses HEPA filtration to provide cleaner indoor air.* An easy way to supplement an HVAC system without replacing or modifying existing equipment, the OptiClean plugs into a standard outlet and can be easily rolled into guest rooms or other areas of a hotel.
*HEPA filter is 99.97% effective for particles that are 0.3 microns or larger.
CONTROLS AND SERVICES
Strategies
· Ensure that there is adequate ventilation and filtration through a process of commissioning and testing. Commissioning and testing should be performed by trained individuals and should be performed at regular intervals.
· Testing can be done through the use of low-cost IAQ monitors. If CO2 concentrations are measured at levels below 1,000 ppm while facilities are occupied, then the outdoor air ventilation is likely performing according to acceptable minimum standards. Higher CO2 concentrations may indicate that other strategies for increasing outdoor air ventilation are necessary.
· To promote healthy indoor environments, real-time monitoring for a variety of pollutants and IAQ parameters including (but not limited to) carbon monoxide, ozone, volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde and other aldehydes, temperature, humidity, noise and light are recommended.
Solutions
· Remote Airside Management provides continuous validation of IAQ parameters, periodic checks of equipment health and continuous airside commissioning, enabled by a command center.
· Hotels should implement multi-parameter IAQ monitoring to baseline
performance, identify deficiencies and enable demand control ventilation
for specific contaminants of concern. IAQ monitoring can also confirm
CLOUD
the effectiveness of filtration and air
purification in the building.
· Carrier’s best-in-class BluEdge® service platform
Data
Email alerts and reports
Data analytics
offers indoor air quality
assessments, wellness services, 4G
Carrier’s experts and customers
retro-commissioning and more. As a result, hotels can operate
Digital interface
at their peak performance,
providing lower energy and maintenance costs and a
ACTIONS
more productive, healthier
building environment.
PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE
· Remote connection through BMS manages IAQ and ventilation in line with best practices
· Make changes and fix issues remotely · Optimize maintenance and operational
costs · 24 x 7 command center
HVAC EUROPEAN BLUEDGE DIGITAL PORTAL
· Provide advanced remote analytics · Optimize energy efficiency, equipment
uptime, occupant comfort and operational productivity · Actionable insights by different communication protocols · Optimize autonomously or through a remote application
RETROFIT SPARE PART SOLUTIONS
I N N O VAT I V E TECHNOLOGIES
· M5 filters · New filtering media technologies · High filtration efficiency of PM2.5 particles
ADD-ON RETROFIT A LT E R N AT I V E S
· AHU-UVC add-on kits · Carbon surface & F7 filtering technology
options · Add-ons are easy to install in the universal
frames of existing AHUs · Effective against viruses, bacteria, small
particles and VOCs
RANGE OF FILTRATION SOLUTIONS
· High-efficiency filtration solutions · A large variety of air filters · Solutions for our full product range
(AHU, RTU, TFCU) · More than 1300 references of air
filters to cover all sizes / filtration needs
THE BOTTOM LINE
A positive guest experience has always been critical to the success of any hotel property. Now, as the industry looks to navigate through and recover from the global COVID-19 pandemic, healthy building solutions and strategies will drive those experiences and ensure the health and safety of guests and employees. To learn more about healthy building solutions and strategies for hospitality, connect with a Carrier expert today.
1 Baker, Peckham and Seixas (2020) 2 Shin and Kang (2020) 3 Gursoy and Chi (2020) 4 American Hotel and Lodging Association’s State of the Hotel Industry (2021) 5 Kudo et al. (2019); Marr, Tang, Van Mullekom and Lakdawala (2019); Morris et al. (2020) 6 Shin and Kang (2020)
7 Lan, Pan, Lian, Huang and Lin (2014) 8 Boubekri, Cheung, Reid, Wang and Zee (2014); M. G. Figueiro et al. (2017); M. Figueiro and
Rea (2016) 9 Widmaier, Raff, Strang and Vander (2008) 10 Khansari, Murgo and Faith (1990); Padgett and Glaser (2003) 11 Alexander and O’Rourke (2008); Murphy and Harshaw (2011)
The 9 Foundations of a Healthy Building, Allen, J.D., https://9foundations.forhealth.org
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9 Foundations of a Healthy Building - 9 Foundations
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