Commercial Air Filters

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Commercial buildings create unique challenges when it comes to air filters. The primary concern is, and should always be, protecting the building occupants from airborne contaminants that may affect their health, short term or long term. Filters also help the HVAC system to operate efficiently and reduce building maintenance and cleaning costs. Some commercial markets where air filters are an important consideration include:

  • Office buildings where poor indoor air quality can affect employee production through uncomfortable workers or sick days. Air filters can:
    • Reduce the incidence of colds or the flu
    • Limit exposure to contaminants created by office equipment or the degradation of the building materials such as carpets.
  • Retail spaces where human exposure is increased because of contaminants introduced through:
    • Customer traffic
    • Dusting created by stocking and restocking of materials
    • and even contaminants introduced from the outdoors by customer transport.
  • Hotels and other transitory facilities where people will most likely be the biggest contaminant generator. Many studies have also described the amount of contaminant produced during room cleaning in these facilities. Dusting from lint and other items is a major airborne contaminant problem.
  • Buildings with unique purposes, like casinos. Human traffic in casinos is high as well as the number of people per square feet. Even with light activity the human body is shedding thousands of particles per minute ranging to hundreds of thousands of particles as the activity level increases. Mostly sub-micron in size air filters effectively remove these particles, as well as transferable maladies produced through sneezes and coughing. In casinos, the main objective is to keep patrons comfortable so they will continue to spend money. In some cases, the casino may allow smoking, introducing another realm of contaminants that may be removed through proper air filter application.

Although the major considerations are usually airborne particles, odors and gasses may also make building occupants uncomfortable or even affect their short or long term health. Air filters can control gases known as bio effluents or human body odor, or even rest room exhaust or odors from attached restaurants in commercial buildings, retail spaces hotels or casinos. In casinos that allow smoking, or buildings where smoking or the reintroduction of smoke must be considered odor removal air filters should be considered a necessity. Additionally, ozone, and EPA-defined airborne gaseous contaminant, can be easily removed through the application or proper gaseous air filtration.