Case Study of Life-Cycle costs in filtration

HVAC filters are often considered to be a low price consumable in the HVAC operation. However, looking a bit further into the costs may be eye-opening. The filters perform two main functions: improve indoor air quality and protect the air handling units. While the prior is often measured in MERV ratings, the latter is mostly determined by observation. Proper filter installation and maintenance are crucial to keeping HVAC coils and ductwork clean. If dirt accumulates in the ductwork, and if the relative humidity reaches the dew point so that condensation occurs, then the ductwork can become a breeding ground for bacteria and mould. Reduced filtration efficiencies may allow harmful particles to enter the breathing air. Lung-damaging dust can be as small as 0.5 microns, making high filtration efficiencies critical to providing for safe and healthy indoor air. For example, gaps in and around filter banks and heavy soil and debris upstream of poorly maintained filters have been implicated in healthcare-associated outbreaks of infectious diseases.

The customer's situation

A building owner in the Toronto region evaluated the price of two filter types. The current filters in use were the throw-away cardboard type MERV 8. They use 240 filters per quarterly change out and 80 of them are 30' wide custom filters. The typical purchase order for the quarterly change out is $1,150 and the weighted average filter price is $4.80. The customer has 8 buildings of this scale in the region.

Steps in the Life-Cycle

The first step was for vendors to bid on the supply for one building and based on the value of the proposals, a vendor would be selected for a pilot change-out cycle. The Delta M proposal was for a new filter technology that is 100% reusable and recyclable with a return rebate for each dirty filter sent back. The price of the purECOgreen filter was $6.49 each. On the surface it appears that the price for filters would increase by almost 26%. However, one closer examination of the life-cycle cost it became clear that not all costs are apparent. The client found that the investigation led them to savings that were not available under the old filter technology and had not been considered as even a possibility. Here is the comparison they went through: Delta M purECOgreen pleated filters Price per filter: Case quantity price Return Rebate per filter Volume discount (>500 filters per year) Discounted filter price: $6.49 $5.99 $1.00 each $0.35 each $4.64 Current throw-away pleated filters $4.80 $4.80

However, since there is no longer any need to throw the filters into the waste dumpster, they calculated that they would reduce the need for 1 x 20 yard bin per building per year since the bins normally hold about 1,000-1,200 throw-away filters. Each lugger 20 yard bin costs about $350 under their contract and with those savings divided out over the filter count, the true distributed price of a purECOgreen filter was $4.27 and the quarterly building changeout costs are $1,026 or 12% less than the current costs.

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Dirt Particles Get in the Way

But then they learned about the value of the Sure-Seal gasket on the purECOgreen filters. This gasket minimizes all by-pass air from contaminating the indoor air quality or foiling the coils and ductwork and forces the air to be filtered at the required MERV rating. Although the customer had taken precautions and fitted all AHU tracks with a foam gasket, there was no way to assure a seal each filter to the adjacent filter in a wide multi filter track. Their research in ASHRAE's library of research articles found that any gap that forms around a filter, will reduce its straining efficiency incrementally over the maintenance cycle. After 3 months the dust loading would deform the cardboard filter so much to open up a pencil width space between filters and the coils would foul up with unfiltered air. They took a measurement of the Watts at high operation each of 4 summer months and found that even a light fouling had an impact on the energy use of the unit. They calculated the increase in kw used each month and annualized it:

Quantity 10 Ton AHU 10 Ton AHU 10 Ton AHU 10 Ton AHU

Volts 480 480 480 480

Amps 80 84 88 92

Watts 66432 69753 73072 76396

kW 66.4 69.6 72.8 76.4

Annual Cost $7,168.00 $7,516.00 $7,860.00 $8,248.00

Fouling 0% (clean coils) 5% 10% 15%

10 per kWh _ $348.00 $692.00 $1,080.00

15 per kWh _ $522.00 $1,038.00 $1,620.00

Not only does the cost of energy consumption go up with fouling of the coils, but the contaminated air enters the ductwork and ends up in the breathing air for the tenants in the building. The gap between the filters that fouled the coils is now also reducing the MERV rating of the air supply system. The gap of 0.2 inches reduced the filter effectiveness by 2 MERV ratings resulting in the building air only straining particle sizes at MERV 6. The cost of a MERV 6 filter is significantly less than the MERV 8 filter price they were paying. Again, the price of the original filter was only one component in the life-cycle cost of filtration.

The Net Result

When evaluating the price of HVAC filtration it is clear that the costs are distributed over many department budgets. The true cost remain hidden if the waste disposal budgets aren't reduced by the waste diversion savings, the operations budget will be impacted positively by reduced energy costs, and lastly, the labour time of coil and duct cleaning is reduced by 50% meaning that the cleaning can be scheduled once per year instead of semi-annually. Although no dollars were saved on salaries, other more vital building maintenance could be done more timely. The client selected purECOgreen HVAC filters for the pilot and expansion is planned for all buildings.

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