Corridor false Odor when Occupied with people

[Alfasck]

During the peak time( 8 AM to 1 PM) the corridor of our clinic is giving false odor due the type of patients we are getting. We have a currently packaged unit for the HVAC purpose, Now our team is providing 2 options
1- Installing new FAHU and exhaust fan.
2- Installing Only exhaust fan.
can anyone suggest me which one to choose or any other options.

Location : United Arab Emirates.

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

You need pressure zones to keep the odour walled and extracted specific places.

Go have a look on UK codes on hospitals. They have some quite in depth practises to deal with these things.

BTW just a singular extraction fan and suction point will not help.

You can also create air walls with pin holes jets to form barriers. between sections.

 

[MintJulep]

Maybe ask your team to explain what they found, why the decided that those two options are suitable and which is better.

 

[IRstuff]

Isn't the ability to smell things in the air dependent on the degree of air recirculation also?

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[SAK9]

I think it is worth investigating the source of the bad odour. I have come across instances of foul smell getting into the air handler due to the condensate trap drying up and foul air from soil stack being drawn in.

If you have established the odour is from too many sweaty people walking in from the hot UAE weather you will need to tackle that. I would suggest checking the current design and figuring out what is the fresh air volume allowed in the design. Please do a field measurement and establish it is being achieved. You can exhaust a volume of air approximately equal to this fresh air quantity without compromising positive pressure in the conditioned space. However it is possible that the ventilation air is currently being exhausted out through the toilets and you may not have enough air to exhaust. In such a case you will need to supply additional conditioned fresh air into the space and exhaust it out. How much additional fresh air will be required to dilute the air? You will need to do some dilution calculation to arrive at that. Please check through the ASHRAE to see if there is any guidance available for the calculation. If you are not capable of doing this by yourself please engage a consultant to undertake this study because there s a sizable capital expense to install a new FAHU ,duct work, electricals ,exhaust etc.

 

[IRstuff]

Perhaps your HVAC is undersized for that area; higher air exchanges and 100% OA would seem to be the best that you could do.

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[MedicineEng]

If you are going to recirculate conditioned air back into the space for energy saving reasons, you will need to go through some form of filters or ionization to remove the odour before supplying it back to the space.
If you are installing additional exhaust you will need to be sure that the system can bring in the additional outdoor air properly conditioned or you risk having unconditioned air brought in through doors, windows and any other gap to the exterior.

 

[moideen]

Please check the ventilation damper to see if it is open or closed. In the height of summer, technicians are prone to closing the ventilation damper on the air intake side of packaged units which takes 15 to 20% of the outside air to minimize the load on the unit. Two strategies for reducing odor include extraction and providing fresh air. Examine the return air diffuser to confirm that it is correctly positioned and that air is being taken from the affected region. The corridor is designated as NR by the hospital code, indicating that no positive or negative pressure zone is necessary. However, given the UAE's weather, it is necessary to create a negative pressure zone by providing fresh air and exhaust for public platforms, particularly hospitals.

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