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Development of a Field Test to Measure Gaseous Air Cleaner Performance in a Multizone Building

Published

Author(s)

Cynthia H. Reed, Steven J. Nabinger, Andrew K. Persily, Victor Henzel

Abstract

The performance of gaseous air cleaners for commercial and residential buildings has typically been evaluated using test protocols developed for a controlled laboratory chamber or a test duct. It is currently unknown whether laboratory measurements reflect the actual performance of an air cleaner installed in a real building. However, to date, there are no air cleaner field test protocols available, thereby limiting the existing field data. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has conducted a series of experiments to support test procedure development for evaluating the installed performance of gaseous air cleaning equipment, as well as metrics for characterizing field performance. To date, over 100 experiments have been completed, of which 23 portable air cleaner experiments and 6 in-duct air cleaner experiments are described in this paper. Experimental variables have included air cleaner location, isolation of zones by closing doors, and contaminant source location. For each experiment, air cleaner removal of decane was measured directly using the air cleaner inlet and outlet concentrations, as well as with mass balance analyses using measured room concentrations. The results provide insight into the protocols and metrics that might prove useful for characterizing the field performance of air cleaners as well as the impact of air cleaner removal on zonal concentration levels in a variety of situations.
Proceedings Title
AWMA 100th Annual Conference of the IAQ Waste Mangement Association
Conference Dates
June 26-29, 2007
Conference Location
Pittsuburg, PA

Keywords

Field Test, Gaseous, Air Cleaner, Multizone Building

Citation

Reed, C. , Nabinger, S. , Persily, A. and Henzel, V. (2007), Development of a Field Test to Measure Gaseous Air Cleaner Performance in a Multizone Building, AWMA 100th Annual Conference of the IAQ Waste Mangement Association, Pittsuburg, PA, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=905018 (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created October 1, 2007, Updated February 19, 2017