Task 05-03 – Emerging Portable & in-Line Duct Air Cleaners for Residential Buildings

Objective

Existing environmental chamber facilities at the Building Energy and Environmental Systems Laboratory (BEESL) at Syracuse University (SU) are being utilized for an initial round of tests on selected portable (room) and duct mounted (whole house) residential scale air cleaning devices in Task 8. Given the diverse range of devices and the inadequate or non-existent nature of test standards for many of these devices, full scale environmental chamber testing of contaminant removal (”pull down”) performance and energy use is the most appropriate experimental approach. This initial round of chamber experiments in Task 8 will generate and validate a first-ever testing protocol to compare and contrast performance of portable (room) units and duct mounted (whole house) central systems. This follow-on project to Task 8 will evaluate a wide range of air cleaning devices contaminant pull-down performance scenarios in those same full-scale environmental chambers. Of special interest will be the respective contaminant reduction rate capabilities of portable in room devices versus the duct mounted devices for defined “real world” operational scenarios in homes. From the testing results, air cleaner technology guidelines and training materials will be generated to educate the HVAC industry and certify its personnel. An Industry Expert Panel will participate in setting residential sector research and outreach agendas, testing activities, and education programs.

An Industry Expert Panel will be formed by UIC and periodic meetings, along with other communications, will be structured in Subtask 1 to assist with formulation of residential sector research and outreach agendas, testing activities, and education programs. The panel members will consist of manufacturers, at-large experts, and government research and regulatory authorities to ensure both industry and public interests are served. The formulated research agenda and its resulting prioritized testing activities will be carried out by SU in Subtask 2 on portable (room) and duct mounted (whole house) residential scale air cleaning devices using full scale environmental chamber testing of contaminant removal (”pull down”) performance and energy use. In Subtask 3, findings from the expert directed and prioritized research completed in Subtask 2 will be applied by UIC to education programs, by generating materials to assist in: 11) training the HVAC industry about filter/UV lamp selection, installation, operation and maintenance; and 2) certifying its personnel, including NAFA/NEMI Level 1 and 2 training/certification programs. Also, in Subtask 3, outreach programs will be structured by UIC and directed at builders, owners, and consumers in the residential marketplace that utilize existing government and private sector programs to disseminate findings, such as DOE’s Building America and EEBA’s “Houses That Work” programs, respectively.

Major Sub-awardees

This project is being executed by the Energy Resources Center (ERC) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and Syracuse University (SU). The Principal Investigator is Douglas Kosar (UIC) and Co-PI is Jianshun “Jensen” Zhang Ph.D., Syracuse University.
This project will be initiated January 1, 2006 and is scheduled to be completed in 15 months.