A new Camfil case study at Music City Center, a well-known event center located in the heart of Nashville, Tennessee, exemplifies the difference that highly efficient air filtration can make in energy consumption, labor hours, and landfill waste over less effective solutions.
Better Air Filtration for Public Buildings
Music City Center is a 2.5 million square foot convention center in Nashville, Tennessee, known for hosting high-profile events, concerts, art exhibitions, industry conventions, and more. Understanding the importance of air quality for the safety and comfort of guests, the Center’s Director of Engineering set out to install the best air filtration available. Although this decision was made prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it proved to be wise in retrospect as clean air became even more important.
After receiving a request for quote from the Center, Camfil’s Nashville Branch Manager, Adam Wiggins, offered to survey the site to determine the best possible solution. Camfil’s Mark Davidson interviewed Music City Center’s Director of Engineering alongside Mr. Wiggins about the process of updating the Center’s air filtration. (Watch the interview on Camfil’s YouTube channel.)
Camfil’s Air Filtration Solution for Nashville Event Center Lasted Three Full Years
To help Music City Center improve airflow and filtration, Adam surveyed the existing filtration in the Center’s HVAC system. The filters in use were a fairly common two-stage solution, a low-efficiency pleated prefilter and a MERV-13 box filter. There were several prominent issues with this system:
- The two stages of filtration caused a higher than necessary pressure drop within the HVAC system which led to higher energy consumption overall.
- The prefilters were changed several times per year, with the exact frequency depending on the event schedule. Many labor hours were allocated every quarter to changing out just the prefilters. The box filters had to be changed yearly on average, leading to at least 5240 filters used annually.
- The MERV-13 box filter was not guaranteed to maintain rated efficiency for its entire lifespan, leaving the building potentially less protected for an undetermined period of time.
As an updated and more effective alternative, Camfil suggested the Hi-Flo ES, a pocket filter rated MERV 13-A. The Hi-Flo ES was installed in each of the 1048 HVAC filter openings in the facility. For each opening, a filter depth of 12 inches, 15 inches, or 22 inches was carefully selected to provide the best fit and optimum pressure drop. In the three years since installation, Music City Center has seen excellent improvements:
- Because the Hi-Flo ES is efficient and long-lasting enough that it does not need a pre-filter, the single-stage solution reduced the pressure drop in the HVAC system, leading to a decrease in energy consumption by 34%.
- During the three-year period, only 54 of Camfil’s filters needed to be replaced and those were replaced between years two and three. 994 filters were able to remain in service for the entire term of the contract. . Not only did this reduce labor hours previously used for filter changes by 80%, allowing hours and resources to be used elsewhere, but it also meant a monumental reduction in landfill waste.
- The Hi-Flo ES has a MERV-13A rating, which means factory testing shows it will maintain rated efficiency for its entire lifespan. Many filters rely on an electrostatic charge to increase particle capture efficiency, but as the charge dissipates (which may begin to happen within a month), the filter loses its efficiency. Because the Hi-Flo ES is carefully constructed to maximize filter media area while also allowing optimal airflow, it delivers protection for building inhabitants and HVAC equipment throughoutthe filter’s entire lifespan.
Read Camfil’s full Music City Center air filtration case study here.
About Camfil Clean Air Solutions
For more than half a century, Camfil has been helping people breathe cleaner air. As a leading manufacturer of premium clean air solutions, we provide commercial and industrial systems for air filtration and air pollution control that improve worker and equipment productivity, minimize energy use, and benefit human health and the environment. We firmly believe that the best solutions for our customers are the best solutions for our planet, too. That’s why every step of the way – from design to delivery and across the product life cycle – we consider the impact of what we do on people and on the world around us. Through a fresh approach to problem-solving, innovative design, precise process control, and a strong customer focus we aim to conserve more, use less and find better ways – so we can all breathe easier.
The Camfil Group is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, and has 31 manufacturing sites, six R&D centers, local sales offices in 35+ countries, and about 5,200 employees and growing. We proudly serve and support customers in a wide variety of industries and in communities across the world. To discover how Camfil USA can help you to protect people, processes and the environment, visit us at www.camfil.us/
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