CASE STUDY

BUILDING TYPEUniversity

11 Buildings

AVERAGE PRESSURE DROP48% Decrease

PROJECT SIZE58 Air Handler Units475 Fan Coil Units

LOCATIONTampa, Florida

THE CHALLENGEThe University is committed to safeguard the environment and achieving its sustainability goal in a manner that improves the quality of life and academic experience at the University and yet is responsive to the global nature of environmental issues facing all of society.

With sustainability being a basic value underlying their business philosophy, the building management team identified a solution that would reduce energy consumption and at the same time improve indoor air quality and decrease the burden of COVID-19 airborne transmission through the HVAC system.

The solution consisted of using Blue Box Air™ patented enzyme to perform deep cleaning of the heat exchanger coils.

THE SOLUTIONThe solution consisted of using Blue Box™ patented enzyme to perform deep cleaning of the heat exchanger coils. The goal is to remove biofouling throughout the entire depth of the coil and achieve the following:

● Save fan energy, improve cooling coil thermal efficiency, and/or improve comfort.

● Remove contaminants otherwise disseminated by coils back to the airstream.

● Perform coil disinfection to reduce risk of transmission of COVID-19 through the HVAC system.

Blue Box Air, LLC | sales@blueboxair.com | +1 424.240.3060

Florida University Mitigates Airborne Transmission RiskBlue Box Air Sustainable Coil Cleaning & COVID-19 Protocols

BUILDINGSBlue Box Air™ serviced 11 buildings at the University, a total of 58 Air Handling Units (AHUs) and 475 Fan Coil Units (FCUs).

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CONCLUSIONThis was a successful project to demonstrate the Blue Box™ technology and process. Our technicians were able to penetrate our bio-enzymes through all of the coils and improve air flow and temperature transfer. With our ability to change up the viscosity of the bio-enzymes, the technicians were able to break up the blockage areas located inside of the coils. It is recommended that all of the systems in the property should be serviced in order to see the greatest efficiency and air quality gains for the entire building which is what we accomplished here.

With Blue Box™, it is now possible to keep the system running at peak efficiency. Doing so will reduce the load on the blower motor and greatly extend the life of its components. As there is no risk of damage to the coils with our low pressure application and pH neutral bio-enzymes, it is expected that their useful life will also be extended. The systems for an entire building, running at peak efficiency, will have significant impact on the CapEx, OpEx and the indoor air quality of the building.

ROI

Building # of AHUs # of FCUs#1 6 138#2 3 143#3 7 194#4 18 -#5 4 -#6 3 -#7 8 -#8 4 -#9 1 -

#10 3 -#11 1 -

BLUE BOX AIR™

CASE STUDY

HIGHLIGHTS

No Downtime for System During Cleaning

Penetration of Foam Through Coils

Low Pressure Application - Zero Risk of Damage

COVID-19 Coil Disinfection

Reduction in Load on Blower Motor and Components

Improved Heat Transfer Across Coils

Improving Comfort Conditions by Restoring Airflow to Original Design

434 Metric Tons

$61,970619,697 kWh

$141,670

TOTAL COST SAVINGS

ANNUAL SAVINGS

$79,700

ANNUAL COOLING SAVINGS

ANNUAL CO2 EMISSIONS REMOVED

Project Price $119,275

Savings $141,670

Payback 10 Months

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BLUE BOX AIR™

CASE STUDY

On site airflow measurements using TSI/Alnor 9545-A

On site pressure drop using HT-1890 digital manometer

M&V PROTOCOLBlue Box™ performed pressure differential readings on most units to estimate potential cost savings achieved as a result of the coil cleaning.

In addition, we performed detailed energy M&V on AHU 1 and AHU 8 at Building #7.

The energy M&V was accomplished according to Option A (Key Parameter Measurement) found in Chapter 4 of the 2012 EVO International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol.

The data collected during the monitoring period included supply air flow, pressure drop across coils, existing filtration data, weather data, data related to building operation, status of coils, and BMS data: trend data of total supply airflow, and discharge air temperature.

The comparison strategy is a before/after strategy, in which data was collected before and after the service is performed.

To account for day-to-day variability in building operation, the interval for data collection was one-week before and one-week after the service is performed.

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BLUE BOX AIR™

CASE STUDY

$52,000FIRST COST AVOIDED

FIRST COST SAVINGSThe first cost avoided by cleaning the unit correspond to purchasing additional 5,700 CFM outside air. That is equivalent of purchasing 52 tons of cooling to restore the flow. The first cost avoided is $52,000.

BUILDING #7

DETAILED ENERGY M&V RESULTS - 1: BUILDING #7Cleaning the heat exchanger coils improved the airflow and decreased the pressure drop across the AHUs.

AHU 8 is a 100% outside air unit. An airflow station measures the outside air airflow every 15 mins. The graph below shows airflow data trended on the building management system (BMS). All data were recorded with fan VFD at 60 HZ.

Data shows that AHU 8 had a severe blockage causing a significant drop of the airflow. Cleaning this unit took five hours and as a result the airflow increased from 2,676 CFM to 8,385 CFM.

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EFFECT ON CLEANING ON AHU 8

BLUE BOX AIR™

CASE STUDY

DETAILED ENERGY M&V RESULTS - 2: BUILDING #7Cleaning the heat exchanger coils improved the flow and decreased the pressure drop across the AHUs.

EFFECT ON CLEANING ON AHU 1

FLOW213% Increase

PRESSURE DROP55% Decrease

FLOW10% Increase

PRESSURE DROP33% Decrease

BUILDING #7

BUILDING #7

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BLUE BOX AIR™

CASE STUDY

% Pressure Drop Change Pre and Post Cleaning

Bldg. #1 Bldg. #2 Bldg. #9 Bldg. #11 Bldg. #5 Bldg. #4 Bldg. #7 Bldg. #6 Bldg. #10 Bldg. #8

-33% -40% -74% -81% -42% -34% -45% -71% -53% -56%

Bldg. #1

Bldg. #2

Bldg. #4

Bldg. #5

ENERGY M&V RESULTS - 3: All 11 BuildingsCleaning the heat exchanger coils decreased the pressure drop across the AHUs.

Bldg. #6

Bldg. #7

Bldg. #8

Bldg. #9

Bldg. #1

0

Bldg. #1

1

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BLUE BOX AIR™

CASE STUDY

% Pressure Drop Change Pre and Post Cleaning

ALL 58 AHUs

ENERGY M&V RESULTS - 3: ALL 58 AHUsCleaning the heat exchanger coils decreased the pressure drop across the AHUs.

XS (0-5) S (5-10) M (10-25) L (25-50) XL (50-100)

-16% -48% -29% -16% -57%

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BLUE BOX AIR™

CASE STUDY

CALCULATED FAN SAVINGS

BuildingTotal Supply

Airflow (CFM)

VAV or CVPre Cleaning

Pressure (In wg)

Post Cleaning Pressure (In wg)

#1 193,128 CV 0.49 0.33

#2 164,144 CV 0.43 0.26

#9 10,300 CV 0.38 0.10

#11 10,000 CV 0.84 0.16

#5 6,700 CV 0.58 0.34

#4 100,000 CV 1.87 1.23

#4 154,000 CV 1.87 1.23

#3 63,500 CV 0.75 0.72

#7 71,886 CV 1.29 0.71

#6 49,000 CV 0.64 0.19

#10 213,000 CV 0.62 0.29

#8 54,000 CV 0.41 0.18

BUILDING INFORMATION

Operating Hours/Day

24

Operating Days/Week

7

Electricity Cost ($/kWh)

0.1

OUTPUT

Fan Instant Power Savings (KW) $/Day $/Month $/Year

5.9 14 399 4,789

5.3 13 354 4,246

0.6 1 39 470

1.4 3 92 1,107

0.3 1 22 265

12.1 29 814 9,768

18.8 45 1,266 15,187

0.4 1 28 337

9.1 22 614 7,366

4.9 12 327 3,924

15.2 37 1,024 12,292

2.8 6.6 184.8 2,218

SUMMARY

Total Fan Yearly Savings (kWh)

Total Fan Yearly Cost Savings ($)

CO2 Emissions Removed Yearly (metric tons)

619,697

61,970

4348

BLUE BOX AIR™

CASE STUDY

CALCULATED THERMAL EFFICIENCY GAINSHeat Transfer Savings:

Major Heat transfer loss to the fins due to the much lower thermal conductivity of the organic biofilm covering the aluminum fins.

- When a tiny biofilm (1.5 thousandth of an inch i.e. half the thickness of a common paper sheet) builds up on a coil, it adds an insulating layer on the heat transfer surfaces.

- This additional layer reduces the heat transfer coefficient U.

$79,700ESTIMATED COOLING SAVINGS

of 900 kWh / year / 1000 ft2

OUTPUT

Results:

Cleaning the coils will improve the COP to the same effect as increasing the COP from 2.75 to 3.

Calculations:

1. Hourly weather data of last 5 years to get outside air enthalpy

2. Return air enthalpy, assume T air after coil = 55 F

3. Calculate energy for different COP 3 and 2.75

Blue Box™ delivers a unique model for ensuring facilities to experience the safest air possible within their normal day to day operations. With its patented process for how to treat and disinfect any type of facility’s HVAC system, Blue Box™ eliminates a critical weak point in all building operations. Our innovation is how to penetrate through any depth of the heat transfer coil to ensure near-perfect surface area coverage. Our process involves one of the most comprehensive solutions for how to disinfect these hard to reach places so that a building’s air supply is both efficient and safe. For further information, visit www.blueboxair.com

INNOVATING AIR: A NEW LEVEL OF CLEAN. © Blue Box Air, LLC. All rights reserved. October 2020

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UNIT RE-ASSEMBLEDUNIT AFTER CLEANINGPROKURE TREATMENT

BLUE BOX AIR™

CASE STUDY

UNIT BEFORE CLEANING

BREAKTHROUGHDURING TREATMENTCOOLING COIL - BACKCOOLING COIL - FRONT

BREAKTHROUGHBREAKTHROUGHBACK OF COIL - BEFOREFRONT OF COIL - BEFORE

PROKURE TREATMENTHYDROCARBON FOULINGBACK OF COIL - BEFOREFRONT OF COIL - BEFORE

BUILDING #1

BUILDING #2

BUILDING #5

BUILDING #6

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