Prominent Houston Hospital, 2015

The case

A prominent Houston, Texas hospital’s air handler units were covered in Aspergillus due to poor filtration and internally lined insulation. Sanuvox IL Coilclean was able to reverse clean the air handler units preventing any contamination in the hospital and saving the hospital thousands of dollars in energy due to reverse cleaning the cooling coils.

The Problem

Our distributor, The Filterman LLC, received a phone call from a prominent Houston, Texas hospital with a severe microbial problem. Aspergillus was growing on the evaporator coil, the transition ducting and the HEPA filters. The hospital was using substandard filters and were not sealing the filters to prevent air bypass. Houston summers routinely get above 100 degrees F and range up to 90% humidity. Biofilm growth in the fins of the cooling coil was preventing proper dehumidification and reducing the air handlers cooling capacity, resulting in thousands of dollars in wasted energy.

After 4 years of poor filtration, the air handler units were covered in Aspergillus. The black internally lined insulation was completely white with mold growth. The HEPA filters began accumulating moisture due to the fouled evaporator coils further promoting mold growth and reducing the filters life.

Before: Pan is full may need to unclog drain of the biofilm accumulating

Sanuvox Customized Solution

Together with The Filterman, Sanuvox sized each evaporator coil, measured airflow, duct dimensions and recommended the Biowall 60” fixture per transition ducting and specific sizes of the IL CoilClean product based on coil dimensions for each of the air handler units throughout the hospital.

Conclusion

Within 4 months of Sanuvox Biowall and IL CoilClean installation, the evaporator coils began releasing biofilm that had accumulated through the fins of the coils. This biofilm reduced the efficiency of the cooling coil and restricted dehumidification of the air, which became the source of contamination. The internally lined insulation began turning black again as the mold growth was disinfected. The HEPA filters were changed and 5 years later, have still not grown mold.