How to Improve Indoor Air Quality Using Technology

Seemingly each week, scientists discover new aspects of the coronavirus that add to the difficulty of containing spread. One of the more significant findings recently is that in addition to large droplets expelled during coughs and sneezes, transmission can occur through smaller airborne particles called droplet nuclei.

This is particularly relevant for building owners and operators as these smaller particles can stay aloft and be transported through ventilation systems. To make matters worse, because many buildings rely on air recirculation, they are effectively optimized to spread airborne diseases.

At the outset of the crisis, there were more narrow guidelines such as maintaining social distance, wiping down surfaces, wearing masks, and washing hands often. While these measures will continue to be important, they also appear insufficient in the long run, even if just in terms of perception.

In a recent interview with The Real Deal, CBRE’s CEO of the New York Tri-State Region, Mary Ann Tighe explained what that means from the tenant’s perspective. “I do think that one of the things that emerges from this is a focus on air quality, which is something that, curiously, we’ve been talking about for 20 years but that everybody has tuned out. Now, suddenly tenants are going to be very interested in, ok, tell us how you filter the air in this building.”

To add to the difficulties of managing a property under dramatic changes to occupancy and with limited staff, owners and operators must also find ways to improve air quality monitoring and communicate measurements in real-time to tenants. Fortunately, technology has made that initiative easier and more affordable.

Ventilation

Last week, we released an article Benchmarking CRE Against COVID-19 Best Practices. In it, we found that 31% of commercial real estate properties did not have all ventilation units working properly. In Class B properties, that number rose to 40%.

Proper ventilation is the first line of defense against airborne illnesses. Studies have shown that bringing in more outdoor air helps dilute air containments, making infection less likely. In fact, a model created by the Healthy Buildings program at Harvard found that proper ventilation is as effective in mitigating outbreaks as vaccinating approximately half of the population.

Ironically, many buildings are doing the opposite, recirculating air in the name of efficiency. When it’s very cold or very hot and windows remain closed, the air coming out of vents may be completely recirculated, leading to very high risk of infection during outbreaks.

How Tech Can Help Today

The first step to ensure proper ventilation is to make sure that ventilation units are turned on and operating as intended. This effort can be done seamlessly with granular building data, but it can also be achieved the old fashion way through physical inspections.

Perhaps more importantly in the short term, owners and operators should begin to monitor the air for contaminants. There are now affordable sensors on the market to that can effectively provide real-time measures of particulate matter in tenant spaces and common areas. In addition to reducing the risk of infection, scientists have found that people who lived with elevated levels of fine particulate matter were more likely to die from COVID-19.

This indoor air quality (IAQ) data, connected to analytics software, points operators to ventilation issues so they can be addressed proactively. In addition, the data can be displayed and serve as another tenant touchpoint to demonstrate that the property is being managed with their health in mind.

Filtration

Of course, it will be impossible to eliminate air recirculation in many commercial real estate properties. Therefore, it’s important to minimize cross-contamination by enhancing the level of filtration.

Since the outbreak, many properties have switched to using filters with a Minimum Efficiency Rating Value (MERV) of 13 or higher, but some are still using low-grade filters that capture less than 20 percent of viral particles. Though far from perfect, MERV 13 filters (which capture around 80 percent of viral particles) are a significant improvement over low-grade filters.

Of course, it doesn’t matter how good a filter is if it’s not getting replaced. More often than anyone would like to admit, changing air filters is one of those preventative maintenance items that get skipped in order to address more immediate concerns. With many buildings only allowing one operator on site at a time, changing filters is only more likely to fall off the end of the to-do list.

How Tech Can Help Today

With operators stretched thin, sensors can ease the burden of ensuring that filtration is maintained. Instead of relying on a static, calendar-based schedules, software connected to these sensors can proactively notify operators that a filter change is necessary.

This simultaneously ensures high indoor air quality and saves time by avoiding unnecessary tasks. The software can also automatically verify when the filter has been replaced, adding accountability for operators and transparency for management.                 

Air Purification

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak, some landlords may find that tenants want to go beyond air filtration to air purification. To date, air purification, which can capture up to 99.97 percent of viral particles has been mostly limited to high-risk populations such as those in hospitals.

Nevertheless, with air quality under more scrutiny than ever, it’s not impossible for office and multifamily tenants to begin to request purification. However unlikely, it’s important that owners and operators understand the technology that exists and how it’s being deployed.

Portable air purifiers that use High Efficiency Particulate Arrestance (HEPA) filters can be deployed in common areas and even large tenant spaces. One important note here is that some vendors use a marketing term known as "True HEPA" to give consumers assurance that their air filters meet the HEPA standard. Products that are marketed to be "HEPA-type," "HEPA-like," "HEPA-style" or "99% HEPA" do not satisfy the HEPA standard and may not have been tested in independent laboratories. Although such filters may come reasonably close to HEPA standards, others fall significantly short.

These air purifiers can be enhanced with UV light air purification that goes a step further and destroys even the smallest particulates. Some technology companies are even combining UV lights with robots that navigates a space and actively cleans the air, though these are not likely a short-term solution.

Humidity

Unlike air purification, which would be a new hurdle for most commercial real estate operators, humidity is an air quality issues that is very familiar. In fact, most operators know that humidity is equally as important as temperature at avoiding hot/cold calls from tenants.

Like other aspects of air quality, humidity is going to receive more attention in a post-COVID-19 world. There is ample evidence that viruses survive better at low humidity. Tenants may start to demand real-time evidence that humidity is being maintained in the optimal range of 40 to 60 percent.

How Tech Can Help Today

Fortunately, the same air quality sensors used to detect particulate matter can take real-time humidity readings, as well as CO2, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds. These readings can be displayed in tenant spaces and common areas.

For the most part, these sensors are wireless and easy to deploy. It should be noted however, that some networking may be required to get the data transmitted into the cloud in real time. Because of that, it may make sense to take advantage of this time of low occupancy to install IAQ sensors so that the results can be shown to tenants as soon as the building reopens.

Conclusion

There is no way to tell what the long-term ramifications of the coronavirus will be.

For office properties in particular, the popular sentiment seems to be split. Some believe that office tenants that have grown accustomed to working from home will start to view offices as a luxury and significantly reduce their footprint. Others believe that people will appreciate the office more than ever after spending so much time at home.

These questions will also play out in other property types: whether multifamily residents decide to move out of cities, how much the coronavirus speeds up the trend towards ecommerce, and whether tourists opt to visit less dense areas.

One strategy landlords of all property types can use to tip the scale is to be proactive about indoor air quality and to deploy technology so that their operators can address issues quickly and that measurements can be communicated to tenants in real time.

This could also play out as more tenants looking to building certification standards such as WELL and RESET as a larger factor in leasing decisions. The same technology that is being deployed today also provides points towards achieving these certifications, adding to the incentive to act sooner rather than later.             

Want to get a deeper dive into indoor air & what COVID-19 taught tenants, what this means for building operations and how this translates into technology? All this and more is covered in our white paper, How to Pass the Indoor Air Quality Test Going Forward.