Schools need to be ready. With tens of thousands of students already back in classrooms and millions more going back over the next few weeks, cities around the country are scrambling to do protect students and staff. Continue reading “Schools Scramble To Open Safely”
We’re a part of something bigger. Across the country, businesses and schools are realizing just how important air purification is in the fight to reopen the nation safely. Here are a few of those stories. Continue reading “Air Purification Updates From Around The Country”
Students and parents around the country are anxious about returning to school. We’re helping to keep one local school breathe a little easier in the last weeks of summer vacation. Continue reading “Schools Reopening: TC Central Breathes Safely”
At Keen Technical Solutions, we’ve done what a lot of businesses have done. We’ve redirected our focus and energy to tackle one of the biggest challenges the world has seen in decades. We all play a role in the fight against coronavirus, and we are all-in to do our part. Continue reading “Michigan COVID-19 Grant Ends August 7”
Right now, the American Sun Belt is bearing the brunt of the coronavirus epidemic. Will things go dark in the northern states once we need to turn up the heat? Continue reading “Resources To Improve Air Purification Before Fall”
Breath safely. We might be done with the worry and stress of the pandemic, but it’s not done with us. We remain committed to keeping businesses, schools, hospitals, and everyone safe as we get back to work, back in the classroom, and back on the move.
This thing is only beginning. While there is plenty still to learn about the spread of COVID-19, one thing is clear; when people are indoors in big numbers, there tends to be a spike. Think about it; in the late winter and early spring, the worse hotspots were in cold regions like Michigan, New York, Seattle, and other places where people were stuck indoors.
As summer heat and early easing of lockdown efforts drove people in southern states into air-conditioned buildings, the same thing happened. When the A/C kicked on, the cases surged. As the weather became more temperate further north, case numbers sank.
We’re bracing for the return of thousands of students back into schools this fall, as well as watching how we can best protect the hundreds of teachers and staff it takes to keep our schools going.
Additionally, businesses in our hometown have battled the economic effects of a months-long shutdown and a sluggish season of summer sales. They know they won’t make it through another lockdown, and they also know that they need to protect their staff and customers.
Over the past weeks and months, we’ve been working closely with our local partners to install Needlepoint Bipolar Ionization technology to kill 99.4% of COVID-19 particles in just thirty minutes. NPI is the first air purification system to be tested specifically against this pathogen and has proven time and again to be the most effective way to keep people safe indoors and help them breathe safely.
We’ve put stickers in the windows of local businesses to let both staff and customers know that they can breathe easy. This effort is a way to reduce the spread of a dangerous disease and another way to keep people safe, in addition to CDC guidelines that include hand-washing, wearing a mask, and adhering to social distancing practices in public. Breathe safely, and let’s be a part of the solution.
Want to learn more? Call us today! Together, we can save lives. Let’s get started.
One of the most exciting jobs of what we do involves keeping a careful eye on what comes next. Science and technology are offering creative new ways to improve energy efficiency, and preparing now for what’s next is the best way to stay ahead of the curve, even in mundane controls like thermostats.
With more of us spending time indoors than ever, HVAC is emerging as a crucial way to save energy and improve what we do with the power we already use. Not only are experts studying how air conditioning and heating airflow could be spreading the coronavirus, but we’re also learning that these systems offer a tremendous opportunity to do more for us without our having to even think of it.
Lighting systems have offering automatic zone controls for years; by using movement to monitor the use of a room or space, they adjust lighting levels or turn on and off without any manual input. Those are critical systems in all sorts of applications, including warehouses, schools, and hospitals. Now, researchers at the University of Michigan are working to bring the same idea to HVAC. Called HEAT (Human Embodied Autonomous Thermostat), it could change the way we stay comfortable year-round.
The idea focuses on using thermal cameras to scan the faces of anyone in a given space. The system automatically adjusts the room temperature to keep the occupant comfortable. If there’s more than one person in the room, the system calculates the most efficient temperature to keep the majority of the occupants comfortable. It’s essentially personalized automated climate control that can also adapt as quickly when people leave a room.
Right now, that’s more important than ever. While we may be home more than ever, many office buildings and other facilities are seeing seismic shifts in use. Staggered or reduced workforces, more employees working from home, and a new need to use larger spaces to gather, rather than cramped offices. That means buildings need to cool or heat more precise spaces and change their energy use once workers leave.
What’s even more exciting is that this process only gets more efficient with time. The system learns individual preferences and changes in body temperature throughout the day, meaning it will be able to anticipate needs more accurately over time.
Finally, the information gathered by the system can connect to the Internet of Things, which could help influence how other facility structures operate, including lighting and even machinery by adjusting energy use based on occupancy.
While the technology is still new, it’s already available for licensing, and it’s something you’ll be seeing and hearing a lot more about soon.
Interested in what else we’re watching? Let us know with an email!
While they’d never have wished for it, the pandemic and subsequent shutdowns have given climate scientists an opportunity to study pollution like never before. When it comes to solar energy, the findings could be critical.
Around the world, countries responded to the rising threat of the coronavirus with economic and social shutdowns like never before. Entire economies didn’t just wind down, they slammed into a wall. That economic stop has left tens of millions of Americans out of work and drastic stimulus plans rushing through governments in every corner of the globe. Almost no business is unaffected, and industries like manufacturing, transportation, and others have been some of the worst hit.
There is a silver lining, at least. The stoppage has allowed for an unprecedented drop in air pollution. In urban centers, the lack of traffic and other causes of smog have all but stopped, and the result has been staggering. Even in some of the most polluted cities on earth, locals have noticed better breathing quality and better visibility. For researchers, however, it’s offered the chance to do a lot more than just take a deep breath.
For example, solar energy scientists jumped at the chance to study just how much solar panels are impacted by air pollution. One study focused on the air quality of Delhi, India, one of the most polluted cities in one of the most polluted industrial countries. The drastic lockdown measures taken by the Indian government offered a clean, easy-to-identify timeline for air pollution levels, giving scientists a way to get a closer look at how they affect efficiency.
The study found that 950 Watts/square meter of sunlight reached panels in late March, up from an average of 880 W/sm over that same time period in 2017, 2018, and 2019. That’s an 8% increase, which is nothing if not substantial. In fact, an 8% increase is comparable to the difference in sunlight, on average, between Houston, Texas, and Toronto in Canada.
It highlights how much impact pollution plays in the future of solar energy. By reducing the energy production of solar panels, that power needs to be produced by other means. Often, that means relying on fossil fuels that contribute even more pollution to the air, reducing solar production even more. It’s a vicious cycle, but there’s hope in the recent findings that air pollution can clear quickly, but only if producers stop creating such incredible amounts of smog.
Of course, there’s more good to be gained from reducing air pollution beyond better solar power. Air pollution affects the health of tens of millions of people around the world, even contributing to less successful outcomes for coronavirus patients. The world spends billions of dollars a year treating people with respiratory illnesses and cancers connected to air pollution.
The lesson is clear. All it will take to improve many of our environmental challenges is commitment. We simply can’t wait for a health emergency and a stunted economy to drive the change. Learn more about how Keen Technical Solutions can help your company be a part of that change, from solar energy to energy storage and beyond.
From the early days of the pandemic, some leaders tossed out the idea that warm weather would reduce the risk of the coronavirus. As we enter peak-summer, that’s decidedly not the case. Could it be air conditioning? Continue reading “Air Conditioning Spreading COVID-19? We Take A Closer Look.”
Restart the right way. Across the country, businesses are getting back to work. With the threat of COVID-19 still very real, companies don’t just want to promise a safe environment for their team, but to deliver. Continue reading “Restart Safely: Clean Air And Peace Of Mind”
