Airthings for Business and Rensair Are Put to the Test

Airthings for Business and Rensair air purifier helps TRAINFITNESS to understand and improve their indoor air quality and reduce particulate matter.

Businesses looking to optimize the quality of their indoor air often consider air purification systems and their efficacy. If a business can calculate air quality with an operating air purification system, they can determine to what degree the system would improve their indoor air quality and monitor the system’s performance.

Test participants

The Cloudberry Indoor Air Quality sensor, is a pilot sensor for the newly announced View Plus for Business by Airthings, experts in indoor air quality solutions. Equipped with advanced air quality technology, View Plus for Business includes sensors for particulate matter, carbon dioxide, humidity, and more in a customizable display.

Rensair is a portable hospital-grade air purifier that uses an H13 HEPA filter and UVC light to capture and destroy airborne viruses, bacteria, and other airborne pollutants. The original Rensair design was specifically for Scandinavian hospitals, currently businesses around the globe use Rensair for air purification.

Test facility

The selected testing facility was TRAINFITNESS, a leading training provider in the health, wellness and fitness sector. The site provided an opportunity to test a classroom environment and an environment where indoor physical fitness aerosol generating activities take place. 

The TRAINFITNESS facility is a three-floor, modern building comprising offices, a classroom, fitness/dance studios, a gym, and a cycling studio. The building has an integrated HVAC system, which has had its filters recently cleaned, and the system can supply and extract air across the building.

A TRAINFITNESS classroom, that reports receiving 8 air exchanges per hour (ACH), was the site of the Airthings/ Rensair test. The volume of clean air in this classroom is better than the 6 ACH the World Health Organization recommends for healthcare settings. Still, TRAINFITNESS wanted to see if their current air quality could be enhanced further to create a superior level of air quality.

Test procedure

Part 1: The test called for the installation of the Airthings View Plus for Business in the classroom to record the indoor air quality data over a three-day period from Monday through Wednesday. This established the classroom’s actual use data. Note that the classroom has one point of entry/exit, and windows that can open but they remained closed. The HVAC system was operational 24/7, and the classroom was in use between the hours of 09:00 and 18:00 with a maximum occupancy of eight.

Part 2: The second test called for the installation of the Rensair unit in the same classroom for a three-day period on the following Monday through Wednesday. The classroom conditions and occupancy were identical to the prior week. Rensair operated on the highest fan speed from 09:30 on Monday, March 22 through to the morning of Thursday, March 25. By performing the testing with identical controllable influences, the result was a fair comparison of the data captured by View Plus for Business. 

Overview test results

These graphs illustrate results of the View Plus for Business test of the Rensair air purifier in the TRAINFITNESS classroom during two three-day time periods controlled with identical conditions and occupancy.

Note that outdoor conditions affect that indoor air quality. During this test, the real life factor of outdoor construction and resulting congestion resulted in a spike in measurements. The overall impact was less than expected.

The test shows Rensair improved air quality in the classroom through the reduction of particulate matter (PM), which was measured and recorded by View Plus for Business. The test measured the PM counts in the classroom for three days without Rensair and then for three days with Rensair working in the space under identical conditions. 

The graphs illustrate the highest and the average PM counts recorded. In comparing the data, there’s a clear reduction of particles, in particular PM10 and PM2.5.

Summary

The air quality inside TRAINFITNESS – which was monitored with View Plus for Business from Airthings – prior to the use of Rensair is of a very high standard exemplified by an ACH delivery on par with healthcare settings. Even with excellent ventilation, Rensair positively influenced the indoor air quality by further reducing the PM counts in the classroom. The ability of Rensair to take clean air and make it even cleaner shows outstanding performance and secures Rensair as the leading indoor air-cleaning device. With Airthings for Business sensors, TRAINFITNESS can really understand their air quality and know which actions to take to improve it.