With Independence Day weekend approaching Americans are making plans to celebrate with cookouts, swimming, and other outdoors activities. These simple pleasures become even sweeter knowing that, when outside, we are breathing clean, fresh air. What some don’t know is that when we return to work, we are often returning to buildings that have been consciously designed to bring in fresh outdoor air. This fresh air creates cleaner and safer indoor environments. You don’t need to be in the backyard in order to breathe fresh air!
We refer to HVAC equipment specifically designed to condition outside air as DOAS equipment, or a Dedicated Outdoor Air System. The goal is to flush recirculated air from a building and replace it with clean air from outdoors. Doing so reduces the quantity of unwanted particles in the air by diluting their concentration.
How does a DOAS unit work?
While technologies and applications differ, most DOAS equipment operates on the same basic principles. Outside air, which in the summer is hotter and more humid than indoor air, must be cooled and dehumidified before being discharged into the space. If it were not, temperature and humidity in the building would skyrocket. Air passes across a cooling coil that reduces its temperature to around 50°-55°F. This process removes much of the moisture from the air. Because 50°-55° is too low to comfortably blow into a room, DOAS units often offer hot gas reheat as an option to heat the now-dry air up to a more comfortable 68-72°. Now, fresh air is ready to enter the space.
While we will likely return to work still thinking about the fun we had outdoors over the holiday, we can do so knowing that some of the outdoors is still with us.
To learn more about United CoolAir’s DOAS offerings, click the following link to our Omega Air product or call us to discuss how we can modify our other products to fit your DOAS application.