Investigation of HVAC operation strategies for office buildings during COVID-19 pandemic
The objective of the case study was to compare different HVAC operation strategies to mitigate indoor virus, including MERV 10, MERV 13, and HEPA filtration, as well as supply of 100% outdoor air into the building. The strategies were compared in terms of indoor virus concentration, predicted number of infections, and energy consumption. The mitigation strategies were studied for the first floor of a five zone, medium office building located in Denver, CO. The results showed ASHRAE-recommended MERV 13 filtration reduces the average virus concentration by about 10% when compared to MERV 10 filtration, with an increase in site energy consumption of about 3%. In contrast, the use of 100% outdoor air reduces the average indoor concentration by about an additional 1% compared to MERV 13 filtration, but significantly increases heating energy consumption. Use of HEPA filtration increases the average indoor concentration and energy consumption compared to MERV 13 filtration due to the high resistance of the HEPA filter.
Fig.1 - System schematic
Fig.2 - Modelica model
Factsheet
| Number of buildings | 1 |
| Number of thermal zones (per building) | 5 |
| Complexity of thermal zone model | Low order |
| Coupling/Decoupling between district network and buildings | N/A |
| Simulation tool | Dymola |
| Modelica libraries | Buildings |
| Additional packages/workflows/scripts | N/A |
| Simulation time | One year |
| Computational time | About 4 hours |
| Solver and tolerance | Dassl 1e-6 |
| CPU speed | Intel Xeon W-2125 CPU @ 4.00GHz 4.01 GHz |
Authors:
Cary Faulkner (University of Colorado Boulder - United States)
John Castellini Jr (University of Colorado Boulder - United States)
Wangda Zuo (Pennsylvania State University - United States)
David Lorenzetti (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - United States)
Michael Sohn (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - United States)
Cary Faulkner (University of Colorado Boulder - United States)
John Castellini Jr (University of Colorado Boulder - United States)
Wangda Zuo (Pennsylvania State University - United States)
David Lorenzetti (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - United States)
Michael Sohn (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - United States)
References:
[1] C. A. Faulkner, J. E. Castellini, W. Zuo, D. M. Lorenzetti, M. D. Sohn 2022. Investigation of HVAC Operation Strategies for Office Buildings During COVID-19 Pandemic. Building and Environment, 207 (B), pp. 108519.
[2] C. A. Faulkner, J. E. Castellini Jr., W. Zuo, D. M. Lorenzetti, M. D. Sohn 2021. MERV 13 Filtration for Office Buildings During COVID-19 Pandemic. Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (ISHVAC 2021), Seoul, South Korea (Virtual Conference), November 24-26, 2021.
[1] C. A. Faulkner, J. E. Castellini, W. Zuo, D. M. Lorenzetti, M. D. Sohn 2022. Investigation of HVAC Operation Strategies for Office Buildings During COVID-19 Pandemic. Building and Environment, 207 (B), pp. 108519.
[2] C. A. Faulkner, J. E. Castellini Jr., W. Zuo, D. M. Lorenzetti, M. D. Sohn 2021. MERV 13 Filtration for Office Buildings During COVID-19 Pandemic. Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (ISHVAC 2021), Seoul, South Korea (Virtual Conference), November 24-26, 2021.