Use This Glossary to Begin Your Journey Toward Indoor Air Quality Success
As your facility prepares to commission air distribution products or an entire commercial air distribution system, you may recognize that you require a new vocabulary.
Although you’re no stranger to leaping from industry jargon to industry jargon, ensuring you’ve selected, researched, and assessed a leading company for design and installation of your HVAC products requires a great deal of learning. You have to pick up the language, study industry trends, techniques, and technology, and understand what’s best for your facility – all in a short amount of time.
If you’re experienced with the facility management business, you know that commissioning was once a much longer process. However, technology has made these processes much faster, so the speed at which you work requires even more from you than you’re sometimes able to give.
To help, we’ve created a glossary of key terms in our industry. Here’s how to use it:
- Reference this glossary when researching products or reading compliance documentation.
- Integrate these terms into communication with your team.
- Return to this document when asking questions of your chosen air distribution system manufacturer.
- Make note of the resources in this glossary (e.g., publications and organizations) as you continually improve your commercial air distribution system.
Learn the Language and Benefit from the Best in Air Distribution and Filtration
Although this list is not comprehensive, it covers the essentials that you are likely to encounter as you begin the commissioning process for a commercial air distribution system or air distribution products to enhance the system you currently use.
AJ Manufacturing is always here to help guide you through the entire process from start to finish. If you have questions as you read through this glossary, connect with AJ Manufacturing and our team will assist you.
Air Distribution
Air distribution is the process by which air passes through an HVAC system to heat, cool, and ventilate rooms.
Air Filtration
Air filtration is the process by which air passes through a specifically engineered filter to enhance indoor air quality (IAQ). This is especially important for infection prevention.
ASHE
The American Society of Healthcare Engineers is an excellent resource for information on air distribution and other key infrastructure that healthcare facilities require.
- ASHRAE: The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers is a global organization that provides recommendations for HVAC system processes in general and for specific settings. ASHRAE Standard 170 is the benchmark by which healthcare facilities measure their air distribution systems’ effectiveness.
- BACnet: A building and automation control network (BACnet) is a communication protocol that allows you to connect an individual piece of infrastructure to larger building controls (see BAS/BMS below).
BAS/BMS
Building automation systems (BAS) and building management systems (BMS) are central hubs that monitor, analyze, and control individual infrastructure, including utilities, HVAC, security, servers, and more.
Ceiling System
Also referred to as a structured, suspended ceiling system, a ceiling system is a drop ceiling that contains your air filtration and distribution components, lighting, and room for other equipment. The SS-CARES system from AJ Manufacturing is a prime example of this product.
Ceiling Grid
A ceiling grid is also suspended, but functions like a skeleton into which a customizable set of components can be placed, including air diffusers, lighting, and more.
Cleanroom
A cleanroom is an environment in which air quality is highly regulated to protect processes and people. These rooms are often monitored for humidity, air pressure, particulate matter, and more.
Cleanroom and critical environment are often used interchangeably, yet a critical environment is often used as a more general term to describe a space with environmental requirements, where cleanroom environments are measured by specific standards. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) provides standards for cleanrooms by measuring particle size, air changes, and more to determine the necessary conditions for certain industry-specific processes.
Critical Environment
A critical environment is any space where assets, including human beings, are compromised if certain standards are not addressed. Examples include a surgical theater or a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant where contaminants can affect a medicine’s quality or safety.
Diffusers
These air distribution products direct air in a specific, regulated pattern based on their design. AJ Manufacturing makes 12 different ceiling diffusers for use in a customized ceiling system.
Fan Filter Unit
A fan filter unit is a component that provides air distribution and filtration for a specific environment. It purposefully functions much like an HVAC system’s fan, but is intentionally redundant to provide that service for one location.
Grilles
Grilles are the covers for your supply and return vents which direct air to and from a room. Supply grilles are used on air supply ducts and return grilles are used on return ducts. AJ Manufacturing supply and return grilles are designed for their practical uses and for their visual appeal.
HAI
A healthcare-acquired infection or a hospital-acquired infection (HAI) is an infection that can be traced to the healthcare setting. One form of HAI that is also abbreviated is a surgical-site infection (SSI). AJ Manufacturing engineers operating-room-ready structured ceiling systems which provide powerful air filtration technology to prevent SSIs.
HEPA
A High-efficient particulate air (HEPA) filter is used in air distribution systems that require filtration for infectious particles. HEPA filters are 99.999% efficient at removing particulate matter with a .3 micron diameter or larger.
HFM
HFM is an acronym for Healthcare Facilities Management, a publication that supports facility managers in all areas of the healthcare industry. HFM is funded by ASHE.
HVAC
This abbreviation refers to heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, which comprises the functions that an air distribution system provides.
IEST
As it relates to air distribution products, the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology provides what they call a “Recommended Practice” for how to determine whether a HEPA or ULPA filter contains leaks before it is sent from supplier to customer.
IAQ
Indoor air quality (IAQ) is a loose term used to describe any form of measurement to determine the safety of indoor air. Some facilities may measure for humidity where others may measure for volatile compounds or influenza.
Infection Prevention
Often discussed in healthcare facilities, infection prevention refers to any measure that prevents infections from spreading in critical settings, such as patient rooms.
Ionization
Ionization attaches ions to particles in the air (including viruses) which gives them a greater mass. These weighed-down particles are then easier to clean from surfaces, as they are no longer airborne.
Laminar Flow
Laminar flow is the physical process by which air travels on a predictable path. This is particularly important for clean rooms where filtered air is required in a highly specific location, such as over an incision site on an operating table.
Modular Design
Also referred to as prefabrication, modular design refers to commercial air distribution systems or products that are designed at the engineering and manufacturing facility. The materials are then shipped in pieces for quick installation.
Modular design is a superior alternative to stick-built manufacturing, in which the entire process is undertaken at or nearby the installation site, causing additional planning and the introduction of harmful debris and service downtime.
SS
Stainless steel is used in all AJ Manufacturing products. We offer type 304 and 316. Stainless steel 316 has additional anticorrosion properties, which may become necessary in certain facilities where manufacturing materials include corrosive elements, like iodides.
UVC
Ultraviolet C radiation (sometimes stylized as UV-C) is a part of the UV spectrum that deactivates viruses, bacteria, and fungi without harming human skin. UVC is used in healthcare facilities as an infection prevention method.
AJ Manufacturing provides a UVC module for our critical environment fan filter units as an additional measure to ensure patient and staff safety.
USP
United States Pharmacopoeia is the national organization that sets standards for pharmaceutical manufacturing. Standards 797 and 800 are often referenced in relation to air distribution products.
ULPA filter
An Ultra Low Particulate Air (ULPA) filter is used in air distribution systems that require filtration for the smallest infectious particles. ULPA filters are 99.995% efficient at removing particulate matter with a .12 micron diameter or larger.
More Than Just Buzzwords: We’re Air Distribution and Filtration Experts
Outside the commercial HVAC industry, one might view this list as niche jargon that has no relevance to their particular field. However, as more and more businesses are recognizing the power of IAQ for health, safety, and wellbeing, we imagine that these words will find a new purpose in society at large.
Until then,we know these terms will find their way into your day-to-day conversations as you find the effective air distribution systems and products your facility requires. AJ Manufacturing offers custom HVAC products designed specifically with your needs in mind, including:
- Critical environment products including ceiling systems and fan filter units.
- Supply and return grilles.
- HEPA and ULPA filters.
- Dampers, louvers, and extractors.
- And many others.
Contact AJ Manufacturing online or call (816) 231-5522 to learn more. Ready for an estimate? Email Amy VanWagner, National Sales Director, at amyvanwagner@ajmfg.us.