Clean Air for a Healthy Future

By / Sheralyn Beleau

NEMIC provides essential IAQ training for contractors and their workforces in the fight against airborne illnesses

When New Jersey first dispersed COVID mitigation funds, some schools bought plastic fans for classroom windows. The fans brought in fresh air but made the rooms unlivable in winter.

A school in Sacramento spent millions of COIVD mitigation dollars on portable air filters to purify classroom air. They quickly found that teachers were turning the air filters down because the noise was drowning out discussions. Worse, each air purifier could clean only one eighth of a classroom, so they all had to be returned.

Many schools and businesses have made similar knee-jerk purchases.

“We’ve got a once in a lifetime, generational opportunity to get the funding we need to solve IAQ problems,” says

Jeremy Zeedyk, Northeast Representative for the jointly funded National Energy Management Institute Committee (NEMIC). “And it’s becoming apparent that building owners and maintainers don’t know what they’re looking for.”

Fortunately, long before anyone had heard of COVID, NEMIC was already investigating indoor air quality. In partnership with ASHRAE, the University of California, Davis, and SMACNA, NEMIC has developed videos, legislative support, expert witnesses, sample evaluation forms, and training to help sheet metal professionals deliver real IAQ solutions.

“We provide answers to help owners get the results they’re trying to achieve,” Zeedyk says. “We find that the more fresh air we bring indoors, the less disease spreads.” In fact, a recent study by Fondazione David Hume in Italy found that just six air changes per hour reduces the transmission rate of COVID by 80%.

Zeedyk estimates that NEMIC has given the COVID IAQ presentation 100 times, to anybody who wants to hear it. “We’re trying to give our local people the tools to take the information and be able to present it, as well,” he says. “They find that people are interested and asking questions.”

The Equity

Some of the organizations Zeedyk and NEMIC’s Director of Education Chris Ruch have worked with are labor unions like the American Federation of Teachers and the Actors Equity Association (the Equity). The Equity, which represents actors in live venues, has specific concerns about the back of the house, which comprise the small, poorly ventilated spaces where actors change between appearances on stage. Zeedyk and Ruch put together HVAC protocols the Equity could take to facility owners as they renegotiated contracts.

They advised the Equity to find certified, qualified professionals—such as signatory sheet metal workers—to perform any needed work. “Studies have shown that if you spend a lot of money on high performance, high efficiency equipment, but it’s not installed and maintained properly, then it’s not doing anything of value,” Zeedyk says. “It’s wasting energy efficiently. So, having the equipment installed and

There’s a lot of work with indoor air quality ... If we don’t have the best people out there to go to work, then we’re going to be in trouble. We’re going to miss the boat. It’s very important to get that IAQ work.

—Bob Butler, president, SMART Northeast Regional Council

maintained by a skilled, trained, certified workforce is the key.”

SMACNA contractor Fisher Balancing Company in Williamstown, New Jersey, has the certified SMART workforce the Equity was looking for. After Fisher Balancing brought one theater up to the Equity’s new IAQ standard, the theater owner sold more tickets than ever before. The upgrade corrected the building’s thermal problems, making the building more comfortable for patrons—and boosting summer sales.

Other COVID mitigation projects followed, giving Fisher contracts in community colleges, a university, hotels, and even a florist shop. “These opportunities are there for all SMACNA contractors and their union workforces,” says Fisher Balancing President Matthew Sano.

Bob Butler, president of the SMART Northeast Regional Council, urges locals to get the training they need to find and solve ventilation problems. “There’s a lot of work with indoor air quality,” Butler says. “If we don’t have the best people out there to go to work, then we’re going to be in trouble. We’re going to miss the boat. It’s very important to get that IAQ work.”

NEMIC Resources

The Ventilation Verification tab at NEMIOnline.org includes pages of guidance to help Locals and contractors give customers the same service that NEMIC, Fisher Balance, and the union workforce provided the Equity. The documents outline the ventilation verification process, with general specifications for most facilities and educational facility specifications for school settings. The white paper, “Design Guidance for Education Facilities” even details the correct way to use open windows in older, unventilated classrooms. (Hint: When it gets too cold, close the windows!)

“The first step is ventilation verification, with nine focus areas,” Zeedyk says. “I like to say the first step has nine pieces.

Step two is the design engineer evaluating the ventilation verification report and making recommendations for repairs, adjustments, and upgrades. The third step is doing the actual repairs, adjustments, and upgrades.”

All of NEMIC’s ventilation verification forms are open source so they can be customized by any contractor or building owner. “Take out what you want and add your company logo,” Zeedyk says. “We created these documents to bridge the gap between what the owner wants and what a contractor wants to provide.”

NEMIC just received ANSI accreditation for its updated IAQ-Ventilation Verification technician and supervisor curriculum and certification exams. This third-party accreditation gives customers confidence that contractors can deliver the results they promise. The ITI also has an online program so any journeyperson can learn how to do the initial IAQ evaluation. Sano encourages HVAC contractors to make sure that all employees receive basic IAQ certification. “TAB specialists can follow up to correct any problems the general workers identify,” he says.

Beyond COVID

COVID is new, but flu and other contagious diseases shut down American schools every year. Last fall, Butler realized that area districts still don’t understand respiratory viruses. A Massachusetts school closed after 250 kids caught the flu.

“The news reports talked about cleaning all the desks, all the classrooms, and the cafeteria,” Butler says. “They didn’t talk about cleaning the mechanical system or even looking at it because they don’t know. I had one of my organizers knocking on the door at the school to say, ʻListen, did you check the mechanisms? Did you check the air filters or to see how much outside air you’re bringing in?’”

COVID mitigation gives us new tools to keep schools open. “When we use extreme measures to control a much smaller COVID virus, that’s going to help with particles like colds, flus, and mold spores,” Zeedyk says. “Washing your hands is good, but the biggest bang for your buck is looking at your filtration and air flows, because that limits the spread.”

“This is not an emerging market,” Sano says. “This work should have been done already. School boards know the money is available. We’re going back to refine early, knee-jerk reactions.” ▪