Impacts of HVAC cleaning on energy consumption and supply airflow: A multi-climate evaluation

Energy-efficiency interventions are crucial for sustainable building operations to accommodate emerging indoor air quality (IAQ) criteria into their engineering life cycles. While several studies have addressed building energy consumption and IAQ considerations separately, few provide integrated analysis of these aspects in response to building hygiene practices. In response, this study evaluates the effectiveness of routine heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) cleaning on energy consumption and supply airflow patterns in non-residential public buildings. This study juxtaposes HVAC energy consumption and ventilation performance before, during and after routine HVAC cleaning, across buildings situated in four different climate zones, while operating in cooling mode. Each site had nearly identical HVAC systems serving similar architectural features and occupational loads; these were segregated into an intervention (cleaned HVAC system) that could be compared to an otherwise identically operating HVAC (control system), which was not cleaned. Following prescriptive cleaning, HVAC systems exhibited significant energy consumption reductions and delivered higher airflows compared to their uncleaned counterparts. On average, intervention systems saved between 41 % and 60 % on conveyance (fan/blower) energy, with one exception, and supplied 10 % and 46 % more airflow compared to their uncleaned counterparts. This research demonstrates how a new generation of low-cost HVAC system monitors can compile Internet of Things (IoT) archives to show immediate energy consumption benefits associated with cleaning HVAC components and their associated ductwork serving relatively high occupancy commercial and educational spaces.