Energy Analysis of Evolving Mechanical Design Methods in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
Open Access
- Author:
- Bigley, Makaela
- Area of Honors:
- Architectural Engineering
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Architectural Engineering
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- James Freihaut, Thesis Supervisor
Linda Morley Hanagan, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Architectural Engineering
Mechanical
Energy Analysis
Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)
COVID-19 - Abstract:
- Over the last two years, the world has faced a change in lifestyle with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. As prevention methods were analyzed, there was a question of how HVAC systems affected the spread of the virus and if they could be used as part of the prevention system. Ventilation and filtration played a key role in these prevention plans as recommendations from ASHRAE were released. To understand how the building industry was responding to the recommendations and the pandemic, manufacturing companies and mechanical design firms were interviewed. The manufacturing companies highlighted the change in customer awareness of indoor air quality and the importance of the building operator. The survey results from the design firm provided insight into how designs were changing. Although many companies had already been designing above the standards for ventilation and filtration, improvements were still being made primarily through the requests by the client. To test the effect of the pandemic on the mechanical systems, a case study was used to run energy models. A community college building located in Fort Worth, TX was used to compare the amount of energy required to improve the mechanical system from the baseline to the new recommendations. The study showed that if the ventilation system was updated from the minimum OA provided to 30% over the minimum, the source energy for the building would increase by 3%. For a filtration system to be updated to the recommended MERV-13 filter, the annual source energy would increase by 0.3%. Additional studies were done based on the company survey results to find ways to offset the higher energy usage. The effect of improving the envelope R-value and the introduction of schedules and sensors into the system helped to lower energy use.