What is an air curtain? Have you ever walked into a commercial building, heard the sound of whirling air, and felt a burst of wind rush across your body as you pass through the doorway? You’re most likely experiencing the effects of an air curtain. If you look closely overhead, you’re likely to see the air curtain unit, but it’s output is invisible. Like a physical door, it isolates different temperature zones and keeps out unwanted contaminants; unlike a door, it doesn’t restrict vehicle or human traffic, or require manual effort to pass through.

Air curtains have many benefits, including energy cost savings, better use of space around doorways, elimination of fog on glass between differing temperature zones and deterrence  against flying insects and other unwanted debris.  Whatever your air curtain needs, Air Door Distributors has the perfect unit for your specific needs.

When you purchase your air curtain, like any mechanical device, it will require maintenance to keep it operational.  The tasks required to maintain an air curtain will vary depending on the type of unit. There are some components that are common to all air curtains, and some components that will be unique to other types and brands. Therefore, different units will require more maintenance than others.

Air Door Distributors offers many air curtain options that require different levels of maintenance.     Here we will focus on common areas of maintenance that need regular attention with most air curtains.

Visual Inspection

Something as simple as a visual inspection of the air curtain components can avoid many problems. Any device that moves air is prone to build-up of dust and dirt. Staying on a regular cleaning schedule is key to extending the life of an air curtain.  Frequent visual inspections may also bring attention to other components that need repair.

Filters

The function of the air filter is to prevent dust and dirt particles from entering the air intake of the unit, keeping the other components of the air curtain clean. Some filters are simple disposable types; they can be discarded and replaced with new filters.  Other filters are made of materials that can be cleaned and reused. Reusable filters can be cleaned with water and a mild soap. When the filter dries, it can be reinstalled in the air curtain unit. When used in dirty or dusty locations, filters need more frequent cleanings or replacements.

Fans

As the fan is the main air movement component, it’s important that it is in good working order. Once again, cleanliness is important. A dirty fan can cause vibration, noise and excessive wear on the motor bearings. Exterior surfaces of the fan should be wiped clean. Fan bolts and set-screws should be checked for tightness, and properly tightened if loose.

Belts

Air curtains with belt-driven fans require frequent belt checks. Belts should be checked for proper tension and physical condition. Belts should not be cracked or stretched. Belts in less-than-optimal condition should be replaced. Belt tension should be adjusted according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Direct drive fans won’t have belts to maintain. In this case it will only be necessary to ensure that the fan is securely mounted to the blower motor.

Blower Motor

The blower motor is the component that turns the fan so that it can move the air required for the air curtain to perform its function. It’s important to keep the blower motor clean. If dust or grease accumulate on the motor, it will be prone to overheating. 

If motor bearings are noisy, it’s possible they may need attention. Some blower motors have bearings that can be lubricated, others have sealed bearings that cannot. If a sealed bearing fails, it must be replaced. If a motor has bearings that are not sealed, the bearings can be removed, cleaned and re-lubricated. Note: bearings tend to fail more often from over-lubrication than under-lubrication. Therefore, it’s important not to over-lubricate the motor bearings.

Electrical Connections

Electrical connections will be found at motors, switches and thermostats. They will need to be checked periodically.  Any signs of corrosion or discolored insulation should be inspected and repaired by a qualified electrician.

Steering Vanes

Steering vanes are the components that direct air leaving the air curtain at  the desired angle. The vanes are usually adjusted at the factory and need no further adjustment. Depending on the application, whether for protection against heat loss, prevention of contamination etc., there may be cases when the vanes need to be adjusted so that the air curtain can more accurately accomplish its intended purpose. A mechanical contractor who installs air curtains should be able to help with the adjustment of the vane direction if necessary. Once the appropriate angle is achieved, it shouldn’t need to be altered.

Maintenance Intervals

All manufacturers have different guidelines regarding maintenance schedules for their air curtain models. Each air curtain should be maintained according to its manufacturer’s recommendations.

While every maintenance procedure for every model of air curtain could not be delineated in this brief set of guidelines, implementing these simple procedures should keep your air curtain in good working order throughout its expected lifespan. When maintaining an air curtain, keep the age and repair cost of the unit in mind. In many cases, it might make fiscal sense to replace the unit entirely. Whether you need to replace on old air curtain or purchase an air door or curtain for a new application, contact Air Door Distributors to identify the latest, most efficient model for your needs.

Keeping your air curtain squeaky clean can quickly fall to the end of your priority list. After all, with only air flowing through it, how dirty can an air curtain get? Dirt, dust, mold, and other particles can quickly build up in your air curtain. Air Door Distributors knows how to clean your specific air curtain model. They know the ins and outs of all air curtains.

In order to maintain its efficiency, your curtain requires regular cleaning and maintenance. Depending on the type, style, size, and physical environment, an air curtain may need to be cleaned anywhere from once every six months to every two weeks. A clean air curtain will save you money and potential headaches.

Your air door could end up with mold and other contaminants built up both inside and outside of the air curtain. These contaminants could not only hinder the performance of your curtain, but they could also pose a health risk to both your employees and customers. Not to mention that the air that the curtain expels could start to smell, depending on how dirty the curtain is. A bad stench will surely stop customers from coming in your front door.

If you live in a humid environment, the air in your environment will contain a lot of moisture. When that air makes contact with the cold surfaces of the air curtain, the moisture in the air turns into water, which will then sit on the surface. Over time the water can cause mold issues if your curtain is not regularly cleaned. Mold has a host of dangerous issues that you and your business will pay the price for.

To understand why you have to clean your air curtain so often it might be helpful to understand how your air curtain works in the first place:

Once you properly install and turn on your air curtain, air will subsequently be brought into the curtain through the intake passage. Once the air enters the fan housing, it will be accelerated and move through the plenum, which is a pathway for the air that has just been accelerated. The air will then be evenly distributed and airfoil-shaped vanes in the nozzle will create a consistent and powerful stream of air. Surprisingly, 80% of the air that leaves the curtain actually goes back into the air curtain. That air will pick up more dust and other particles and create a cycle of dirt and dust.

Now let’s get down into the actual cleaning of your air curtain and how to get all of that gunk out:

Generally, it is a very simple task to clean an air curtain. In some models you can simply unscrew a filter and run the filter under some hot water. That water will clean all the dust and particles off of the filer. Then all you have to do is screw the filter back into the curtain.

In other models, it is not that simple. Industrial air curtains are much more robust and can have multiple motors and fans. This makes cleaning them much more complicated and more time consuming.

To start cleaning an industrial air curtain, make sure that the power connected to the curtain is off. Communicate to your employees and management that the air curtain will be down for cleaning during this time.

Remove the air intake grille or bottom access panel –– depending on the model of the curtain –– in order to access the blower housing and motor. There will be built-up dust, dirt, and other particles. Usually using a vacuum, cotton, or microfiber cloth is good enough to wipe down the curtain parts. In some cases it may be necessary to scrape the buildup off of the curtain (if it has not been cleaned for a long period of time). Make sure that you dry off the curtain completely after cleaning to ensure that there is no mold buildup.

Do not use a solvent-based cleaner. This type of cleaner could damage the integrity of the material that your air cleaner is made of. Use a combination of water paired with a cleaner that has a bit of bleach in it. This should clean the all of the debris off of the curtain. If there is an oily or greasy substance built up on the curtain, you may need to use a detergent to remove this layer. Never mix ammonia and bleach as a cleaner. As many of you are aware, this combination produces chlorine gas, which can be deadly in large quantities.

Consult your air curtain operations manual for a step-by-step walkthrough on how you can clean out your specific air curtain. Can’t find your manual? Air Door Distributors has air curtain operation manuals posted right on their website. Contact us at 866-402-1642 or fill out our online contact form if you have any questions about your air curtains.

Hospitals are challenging environments, and not only for the doctors and nurses who work hard every day to save lives and provide a high standard of care. Managing the logistical needs of large medical complexes is a challenge, from controlling energy usage, to monitoring air quality, to ensuring that patients have access to food prepared in a hygienic environment. Air curtains are standard in establishments from restaurants to grocery stores, but do they have a role to play in a hospital environment?

The answer to that question is a resounding “yes.” In fact, hospitals can make use of air curtains in a wide variety of scenarios. A widespread deployment could cover everything from loading dock doors to kitchen entrances to even the emergency room. They can help with comfort, it’s true — but for hospitals, there are larger and more mission-critical benefits to consider beyond the basics. Consider how a hospital, existing or planned, could take full advantage of this innovate technology.

More Effectively Manage a Hospital’s Challenging Energy Demands

Heating and cooling costs account for a huge percentage of the annual energy spend in most homes and businesses, and hospitals are no different. Whether it is a smaller rural facility or a high-rise urban hospital, the HVAC equipment necessary for maintaining comfortable and clean air is substantial. All this equipment translates into a large portion of every hospital’s budget. At such a large scale, even small changes can have a ripple effect that ultimately impacts monthly expenditures.

An air curtain’s primary function is to use a fast-moving yet gentle stream of air to create an effective environmental separation between two zones. Affixing air curtains above exterior entrances to the hospital, therefore, can help to keep outside air from displacing cooler indoor air treated by the building HVAC systems. Air curtains come in a variety of sizes, large enough to accept deliveries at the back and small enough to cover private entrances.

One of the most common uses, however, is in combination with a vestibule. Adding an air curtain to an existing vestibule contributes to energy savings, but also provides an effective barrier against outside odors and fumes. For example, in a hospital case study produced by air curtain manufacturer Berner International, hardware installed over the vestibule aided in putting an end to unwanted and unpleasant vehicle fumes entering reception and emergency room areas. According to the case study, the added energy savings benefits also contributed to an average repayment of the investment in just two years.

Use Specialized Air Curtains to Protect Critical Areas

Energy savings are of paramount importance, not only for protecting the environment, but for saving money, too. However, this is not all air curtains can do for hospitals. The latest technological innovations unlock even more applications. For example, manufacturer Mars Air has recently introduced a range of products aimed at sensitive work environments, including hospitals. These include air curtains with high-grade HEPAC filters and blue-light or UVC technology.

HEPAC filters are extremely well-regarded in their ability to trap and stop contaminants in the air and can aid in halting the transmission of airborne diseases. Likewise, air curtains equipped with UVC technology use a powerful ultraviolet light inside the unit to destroy many of the most common infectious agents that you can find in the air. In hospitals, where preventing secondary infections in patients is critical, these tools can help to create a safer environment even deep within the hospital.

Consider some of the possible uses. HEPAC filters equipped air curtains could be installed over doors to wings of the hospital where cleanliness is even more critical, while UVC air curtains could be used near surgeries, labs, and other vital areas. While air curtains on exterior doors can help to protect your organization from excessive utility bills, interior curtains such as these aid in protecting people.

Maintain Hygienic Environments in Food Prep and Loading Areas

Building on that idea is one final important fact about air curtains: while the air feels like a gentle breeze to the people walking through it, it’s an insurmountable obstacle for flying insects such as mosquitoes and flies. Hospitals often have challenging food prep needs to meet, as hundreds of patients require multiple meals every day. Kitchen staff already have a difficult job without adding “exterminator” to the list — but it’s crucial to keep these flying insects out of these spaces. Using an air curtain can help to stop troublesome infestations before they begin while freeing up valuable time and resources for refocusing on the kitchen’s requirements. From the large-scale energy needs of the hospital to the small-scale daily tasks, it should be clear that air curtains can have an important role to play in many areas. At Air Door Distributors, we can assist your organization in further exploring these options in depth. With years of accumulated experience and access to the leading products from both Berner and Mars, we can help your hospital prepare for an efficient and effective upgrade. For further details, or answers to your questions, please contact us now.

Have you heard someone describe noise in terms of its “decibel level”? Seeing such a number often expressed as dB, can be a little confusing when you don’t have a reference for what it means. The same goes for numbers expressed as “dbA,” which is a type of the decibel scale that relates specifically to how the human ear perceives sound.

When you begin to explore adding an air curtain to your business, one of the most normal concerns business owners have is how loud the unit will be when it operates. As you explore products and pore over spec sheets, you may notice that manufacturers such as Mars actually disclose the decibel level of their units in the paperwork, giving you an easy way to answer your own question. However, reaching that conclusion means first understanding how this scale works and gaining some perspective on the relative loudness of different noises.

Decibels Explained — How Loud is a Noise?

At its most basic, a decibel is a measure of how intense a sound is in terms of the pressure it exerts on the air and, by extension, our ears. At zero decibels on the bottom end of the scale, you would find the most whisper-quiet sounds — those barely audible to human hearing. As the numbers go up, the sounds get progressively louder. Here’s where the most crucial part of the decibel scale comes into play: it increases according to a logarithm, rather than a simple “1, 2, 3…” linear scale. In other words, each step up on the decibel scale represents a significant increase in loudness. Every ten decibels in volume represents an increase in the intensity of 10 times. Let’s put it another way: a normal conversation, which averages about 60 decibels, is one million times louder than a near-silent room at zero decibels.

The Importance of Keeping Sound Levels Reasonably Low

So why does all this matter? We’ll put some numbers in perspective for you shortly, but there are real reasons to consider how loud air curtains are, too. The obvious reason comes first: an air curtain that activates with the opening of an exterior door should not be so loud as to prove disruptive to everyone in the vicinity. It’s simply a matter of comfort and efficiency; restaurant patrons don’t want to pause their conversations every few seconds, and entrants to the building do not want to feel as though they must endure a deafening noise to cross the threshold.

While comfort and convenience matter, there is another reason to consider, too: very loud noises can prove damaging to human hearing. Sounds above 85 dB begin to cause damage that can become irreversible and cause tinnitus or hearing loss. The louder a sound is and more prolonged the exposure, the more damage it can do. While air curtains typically don’t operate quite so loudly, removing the possibility for affecting one’s hearing is important. The good news: air curtain manufacturers know this, and they work hard to keep their equipment operating as quietly as possible.

How Loud Are Air Curtains? Understanding the Options

To give you a sense of what you can expect from various air curtains, let’s look at some of the most popular hardware series produced by Mars Air. Be aware the decibel values indicated here are “A-weighted,” meaning they correspond better to how the human ear perceives sound.

• LoPro 2: A low-profile, slimline air curtain, these are intended for very customer-centric uses with frequent operation. Mars says the LoPro typically produces about 49 dBA of sound — the equivalent of a quiet conversation at home, or a little louder than typical birdsong.

• Phantom series: A recessed air curtain intended for heavier-duty usage at greater heights than a door-mounted curtain. These curtains put out sound at about 66 dBA, about as loud as the typical vacuum cleaner.

• High-Velocity series: For unusually heavy operations and with a much more powerful motor, the Mars High-Velocity curtain still only outputs at about 70 dBA. While this is close to the threshold at which sounds become annoying, brief operation and proper spacing ensure the sound is never damaging.

Even the loudest air curtains, such as the Extra Power series intended for very tall warehouse doors, tops out at 79 dBA. Again, while that is quite loud compared to the quietest curtains, it is still no louder than residential garbage disposal — and the mounting height will help to distribute that sound. Overall, finding an air curtain that operates quietly enough for your purposes should, in fact, prove a simple task.

Find a Suitably Quiet Unit for Your Business Today

While it might feel like you a degree in physics or math to grasp the nitty-gritty details of what precisely a decibel is, it’s not hard at all to understand that the louder something is, the more uncomfortable it makes a space. With advances in air curtain technology making these important units ever quieter, and with special noise reduction packages available from manufacturers such as Mars, unlocking the benefits of an air curtain doesn’t mean making a noisy trade-off. On the contrary, you can enjoy the best of both worlds these days. In fact, the new QuietPro™ series by Mars seeks to provide the same effective level of performance as other small-scale air curtains but with only half as much noise.

At Air Door Distributors, we bring years of experience in this field to the table. With a professional team and a catalog filled with leading hardware choices, we can help to balance your requirements for strong climate control solutions with the need for a more peaceful space. To find out how we can assist you in locating a quiet air curtain, contact our team today

Owning a business and managing the building it occupies is a multi-faceted endeavor, and sometimes it can be challenging to harmonize all the different requirements you face. Whenever possible, achieving multiple goals with the same investment is the preferable course of action. That’s why considering an air curtain as a part of your building’s climate control solutions is worth your time. Air curtains of all stripes bring along with them many benefits as a general feature: they help to keep conditioned air inside a building, improving AC efficiency; they keep dust and small flying insects from infiltrating the property, and they prevent hot or cold air outside from coming in with people.

However, today’s units can do much more. The latest products and innovations from industry-leading manufacturer Mars put that fact on full display. Let’s take a quick look at the latest offerings Mars has and how they can benefit businesses who choose to rely upon them.

Introducing the Near-Whisper Soft Operation of the QuietPro Series

How noisy is your air curtain? Reducing disruptive noises and maintaining a peaceful indoor environment is essential whether you’re operating an office or a restaurant. The new QuietPro™ series by Mars seeks to provide the same effective level of performance as other small-scale air curtains but with only half as much noise. According to the manufacturer, the sound output from the QuietPro series is significantly diminished compared to similar models. QuietPro curtains are also aesthetically engineered to look good no matter the setting in which you place one. Each unit outputs sound at about 57 dBA, or about the level of a soft conversation in a quiet home. When preserving quiet spaces is most important to your business, the QuietPro series may prove most advantageous.

Preserve Indoor Air Quality with the Mars Clean Air Series

Where quiet operation is most important in some industries, clean air is critical in others. From medical laboratories to clean rooms to hospitals and beyond, keeping the air free from harmful particulates and germs is of paramount importance. Previously, air curtains were ideal for keeping dust particles outside, but not so helpful for cleaning the air indoors. With the Mars Clean Air Series, that changed.

This series contains two separate innovations: the Mars UVC technology, and HEPAC filtration. The Clean Air Series is the only commercial air curtain available with HEPAC-level filters, which capture up to 99.9% of even the tiniest airborne particles. This filter also helps to control volatile chemical odors — a must-have in labs. Alongside this innovation is the addition of a UVC light.

Ultraviolet light is extremely deadly to small, sensitive organisms such as bacteria. By bathing the air pulled through the curtain in this gentle blue light, the curtain eradicates pathogens — in fact, it can even destroy E. coli bacteria floating in the air. The result is a cleaner, safer space. A discussion with a professional installer is important for exploring your interest in these technologies.

Choose a Noise Reduction Package for a Quieter Time

What if your requirements mean you must use a larger curtain than those found in the QuietPro series described above? Quiet as they may be, the QuietPros can still only cover openings up to 36 inches in width. For more substantial and more powerful operations, though, you do not need to resign yourself to a noisier curtain. For many of its units, Mars offers special noise reduction packages. These hardware modifications help to reduce and absorb vibrations while dampening the sound of the curtain’s motor during operation. A valuable add-on, ask your air curtain professionals about which products are eligible for this modification.

Unify your Building’s Energy Policy with the Simple Link System

With a growing “Internet of Things” and interconnectedness more critical for technology than ever, why not bring fresh features to this aspect of your infrastructure? BACnet, a system for controlling building automation systems for energy efficiency and other purposes, is a powerful tool that many larger building operators may encounter. The Mars Simple Link system is BACnet ready and can help you to network a large group of air curtains together. Control their operation remotely, use built-in wind sensors to adjust air curtain speed to save energy, and fine-tune your system to work as you like. One of the most advanced options for air curtain owners today, the Simple Link is worth investigating for anyone using three or more curtains at once.

Explore Your Options for New Air Curtains Today

Which air curtain series will have the right hardware for your business? Do you know what package options might suit your needs best? You don’t have to answer these questions alone, just as you don’t have to wonder how to take the next steps towards acquiring a Mars air curtain that helps your business. At Air Door Distributors, we are perfectly positioned to aid businesses of all sizes and in all industries in their search for a better method of controlling air loss. Want to tap into other benefits, such as air quality control or flying insect mitigation? Simply let our team know during an in-depth discussion about your needs. Contact Air Door Distributors today to find out more.

Maintaining the correct indoor environment is a challenge faced in every building, but what “the correct environment” is can differ dramatically from space to space. A large shopping mall, for example, will primarily face challenges related to maintaining a comfortable temperature by minimizing air loss through exits. A restaurant, on the other hand, needs to balance the comfort of patrons with the cleanliness of the kitchen and the efficiency of large freezers. In many cases, the installation of an air curtain can help to address this broad spectrum of needs, but that does not mean this is a space devoid of innovations.

Consider that there are other types of structures with even more complex problems to solve, such as hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare-related buildings. Even laboratories often face challenges stemming from maintaining a clean and hygienic environment. Air curtains have always been available for these institutions but use in more sensitive areas has been limited. This limitation is because air curtains rely on ambient air to divide spaces; a small amount of whatever is in the air passing through the curtain may also end up on either side of its outflow.

Solving Sanitation Concerns

When maintaining a clean and healthy environment is of the utmost importance, air curtains have not always been the prime choice in these specialized applications. However, that has recently begun to change thanks to efforts on the part of leading air curtain manufacturer Mars Air. The solution: improve air curtains by outfitting them with the ability to better filter their operational air, or to even disinfect it entirely. The result is the new Mars Clean Air line. On one end of the spectrum is a new unit equipped with advanced HEPA filtration, an industry first in its own right. On the other end is a modification available for retrofitting on particular Mars air curtains: the Mars UVC system. Using a special blue light inside the unit, a UVC-equipped curtain can actually disinfect and cleanse the air it uses.

What is UVC? How an Air Curtain Can Disinfect During Operation

How could something like that work? The answer lies in the “blue light,” which is an exceptional type of ultraviolet bulb. We’re all familiar with ultraviolet light as the harmful component of sunlight that causes sunburns and some skin cancers, but did you know that not all ultraviolet is the same? In fact, there are subtle differences between different levels of UV, based on the wavelength of the light. These are known as UVA, UVB, and UVC.

UVA is the primary component of the sunlight we receive on Earth’s surface, while UVB makes up less but is the more dangerous sunburn-causing type of UV light. UVC is the very intense, energetic type — but the good news is that our ozone layer helps to reflect most UVC into space. That’s good for us, of course, but what does it have to do with cleansing the air?

UVC light, owing to its powerful nature, has quite a disruptive effect on pathogens such as bacteria. The light is so intense that it can indeed destroy cellular DNA in bacteria, rendering it unable to reproduce or survive. UVC can even help to neutralize some odors in the air. The overall result of building UVC lamps into air curtains is a cleaner-smelling and sanitized stream of air that can help maintain hygienic environments in sensitive applications. Plus, thanks to the way Mars has designed the unit, there is no risk of exposure to the UVC light by walking beneath the unit and through its air curtain.

You don’t have to operate a clean room to benefit from the Mars UVC system, however. In fact, we can return to our restaurant example from earlier to demonstrate a good reason to consider these systems. According to Mars, the UVC air curtain system can remove and effectively destroy E. coli bacteria from the air. As one of the riskiest pathogens faced in any food preparation area, the ability to ensure that infectious agents aren’t entering from the exterior to the kitchen is invaluable indeed.

Exploring Your Choices for UVC Curtains

Is this technology a good fit for your business? Could you retrofit an existing air curtain to use a Mars UVC kit for additional power in space sanitization? Answering these questions demands an experienced perspective. At Air Door Distributors, a major supplier of Mars air curtains to clients across many industries, we have that experience and the hands-on understanding that makes choosing solutions for your business simple and stress-free. In combination with units employing powerful HEPAC filtration, the Mars Clean Air product line can offer straightforward answers to the complex problems facing your company.

To find out more about how UVC technology works and how it can positively impact your operations, please (contact us online or by phone today).

 

During the development of any building, great care goes into many different parts of the process. From structural stability to ready-made subdivisions for prospective tenants, it’s important to consider every aspect of the building’s intended use after construction concludes. Therefore, the design and engineering phase is the perfect opportunity to evaluate the building’s potential for energy efficiency in the future. Not only can it sometimes help to unlock access to state-level financial incentives for efficiency, but it also serves as an attracting selling point to buyers or future tenants.

Among the energy efficiency schemes out there, one of the largest and most well-known is known as LEED certification. Based on a system of points, the more a building accumulates during construction, the higher the building’s final rating. This rating can be an important measure for understanding a structure’s energy consumption and its potential footprint regarding environmental impact. What do you need to know about LEED, and how can designing the building to include built-in air curtains help your building garner more points?

What is LEED?

LEED stands for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design,” and it was developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council to encourage builders to think proactively about making choices that reduce the building’s impact. It often includes taking measures to facilitate more efficient water usage, better indoor air quality, and of course making reductions in energy consumption. Some LEED categories even focus on proximity to public transportation and other factors not directly linked to the building process itself.

Structures earn points based on how efficient they are and which criteria they satisfy, which then leads to a four-tier system of certifications, which works as follows:

0-39 points: No certification

40-49 points: LEED Certified

50-59 points: LEED Silver

60-79 points: LEED Gold

80+ points: LEED Platinum

In an age of increasing environmental consciousness, showcasing a building’s LEED certification can have positive effects far down the road. Not only is operating the building less expensive and more beneficial for tenants, but the certification itself can be a badge of honor for the owner of the building. That ultimately increases its value and improves its standing as an investment further down the road. One important thing to note, though: you cannot become LEED certified for an existing building.

How Air Curtains Help Contribute to Certification

LEED standards do not, on their own, provide for the accumulation of points as a direct result of installing air curtains in your building. However, leading air curtain manufacturers point out that they can be an essential tool in achieving energy efficiency targets in other LEED categories. In (one Berner case study), a massive convention hall was able to meet its LEED targets in part thanks to air curtains installed over large-scale exterior exits.

Air curtains use a focused stream of air to divide interior and exterior spaces, creating a strong barrier that reduces the amount of air that can enter a space from outdoors and vice versa. Just as vestibules help to keep the main entrance to a building from being a major source of heating and cooling inefficiency, air curtains over additional exits and entrances put a stop to unnecessary temperature variations. Additionally, the stream of air also keeps out exterior dust and debris, which in turn contributes to better indoor air quality.

Thanks to these attributes, air doors are an effective way to contribute to the overall efficiency of a space. By improving the performance of other systems while preventing large-scale air loss, you can move one step closer to LEED certification.

Choosing an Air Curtain for Better Energy Efficiency

Because certification cannot occur once construction on a building is over, it is important to consider what air curtains can offer your structure in as early a stage as possible. The primary challenge is twofold: where to place air curtains, and how many you will need. In some cases, air curtains can replace vestibules entirely in the design, saving space and budgetary space. In others, the best solution for minimizing air loss will be a combination of air curtains and vestibules. The size and strength of the air curtains you select will matter, too.

All this equates to a lot of decision making. Just as with other portions of the design process, seeking outside advice from industry experts is the path to take towards solutions. At Air Door Distributors, our years of experience have allowed us to play a role in many projects both large and small. Backed up by a deep product catalogue filled out by hardware from leading air curtain manufacturers such as Mars Air Systems and Berner, we can assist you in determining the best way to proceed with LEED certification in mind. To begin that process now, please contact us online or give us a call at 866-402-1642.

 

Creating a comfortable and inviting atmosphere for restaurant guests involves more than simply good ambiance and decor along with the right interior temperature. Preventing nuisances, such as flying insects, is just as important. Keeping the common fly out of your restaurant can prove to be a challenge, however, especially where the kitchens are concerned. Exterior rear doors to garbage containers, for example, can easily let flies into the kitchen area. Does it really make a difference, though, if a few flies find their way inside? After all, what’s a few here and there if your restaurant is otherwise clean?

Here’s the reality: flies are foul insects, and even one is too many. Adult flies have but two purposes: to eat and reproduce. While they might be a nuisance buzzing around during service, they represent a far greater risk to food safety and the sanitation of your restaurant. The best way to understand these risks is to look at the entire life cycle of the fly. Left unchecked, this cycle could begin to play out over and over inside your establishment, ultimately resulting in a serious infestation of flies. How could that happen?

Where It All Begins

Every fly starts life as a tiny egg. A female fly, once fertilized, can lay up to 150 eggs over several days. Should some of these insects enter your restaurant, it’s nearly a guarantee that they will soon look for a place where they can begin laying eggs. Organic matter rich in nutrients is what flies prefer, and as you can imagine, a restaurant has no shortage of sources for that. Flies will seek out garbage, especially vegetable and meat trimmings, but will also visit fresh foodstuffs as well. In other words, a kitchen is a fly’s idea of heaven.

Once deposited, the time it takes for fly eggs to hatch into their larval form varies. Temperature plays a big role, as does humidity; the colder and dryer the space, the less likely the eggs are to hatch. In very warm and moist conditions, however, it takes the eggs only a mere 24 hours to hatch. From that point, it’s off to the races. Think about that: if a fly lays eggs somewhere in your restaurant that won’t be immediately discarded or cleaned, it’s a ticking time bomb.

The First Stages of a Fly’s Life

We should all be familiar with the revolting larval fly, typically called a maggot. After hatching, the maggots begin to consume the organic material in which their eggs were laid. They then begin rapid growth as the maggots progress through several stages of development, gradually becoming larger and longer. They’re not stuck to one place, either; they can rapidly infest an entire container searching for more food to eat. Again, temperature plays a role here. In warm environments, the whole process can take as little as three days before the maggot is ready to progress to its next life stage. In less stable conditions, it may take up to a week. In either case, that means days of contamination and food waste caused by fly larvae.

Once sufficiently grown, the larvae will begin to pupate in a process similar to what a butterfly does, but with a much less beautiful result. Larvae typically relocate during this stage, leaving food behind and seeking out cool, dark places in which to create their pupae. You wouldn’t happen to have any locations in your restaurant like that, would you? Pupation does not take long — at most, it can take up to 4 days before adult flies begin to emerge.

Continuing the Cycle of Contamination

Flies are ready to take the air in search of mates and meals rapidly after emerging from their pupae. In fact, it takes a mere four hours before females are ready to breed and begin laying eggs again. During the adult stage of their lives, which may last up to a month, flies continually seek out food material. They have no mouths or teeth, however; instead, when they land on food, they spit up (or vomit) a chemical mixture that begins to dissolve the food. It’s the resulting slurry they suck up, leaving behind a contaminated mess. One more “fun” fact that’s relevant here: flies are known to be carriers for dozens of different diseases.

Keeping Flies Out of Your Restaurant with Reliability

Female flies don’t lay one batch of eggs and quit, either; many can produce an average of 1,000 eggs in their brief lifetimes, laying new batches every few days. Left unchecked for even a few days, flies can begin to severely impact the food safety of your establishment while disgusting customers who must contend with them in the dining room. Proper food handling practices are an essential step in shutting down the life cycle of the fly, but there is another technique that is even more effective. Why not ensure that the flies simply can’t enter your establishment at all?

That’s where air curtains can come into the picture. Mounted above the doorways of the entrances and exits to your building, each unit creates a coherent stream of air that is gentle to people but like a hurricane to a tiny fly. Should one attempt to fly in through an open door protected by an air curtain, it will find itself quickly blown back outside. With this one simple solution, safeguarding your restaurant and ensuring it does not become a breeding ground for flies is easy.

At Air Door Distributors, we use years of experience and access to a deep catalog of products to connect our clients with appropriate solutions. Air curtains are excellent for more than just insect control, as they can have a positive impact on your energy usage as well. To find out more about how air curtains can change the way your business protects itself from flying insects and the adverse health effects they bring along, please get in touch with our team today.

When it comes to covering the “last mile” of the trip from a producer to a retailer, trucking is the transport method of choice by an overwhelming margin. Tens of thousands of tons of goods move from farms, warehouses, and manufacturing facilities to customers every day. A significant amount of that freight involves cargo that must remain refrigerated to stay fresh. Fruits, vegetables, dairy and meat products all require special trucks to ensure they can arrive safely at their destination. For operators of refrigerated trucking fleets, maintaining the right temperature is always a challenge. By and large, though, the built-in air conditioning systems do their jobs just fine. That is, at least until it’s time to load or unload product.

The Problem: Temperatures Spike During Load Operations

When a driver unlocks the rear hatch and opens the door to the refrigerated compartment, the physics of thermodynamics immediately begin to come into play. Hot air from the outside will begin to flow into the trailer, displacing the cold air. If left open long enough, the temperature will climb steadily towards the ambient outdoor level. When a truck must make multiple deliveries from the same load of cargo, this temperature spike can have the potential to impact product quality when left unchecked. Even when the change is not so severe, it will still result in an additional load on the truck’s air conditioning equipment.

Ultimately, that strain both increases wear and tear on critical equipment while also affecting fuel consumption. Both represent very real costs for any transport logistics company. Combined with the risk of possible product spoilage resulting in losses for both supplier and purchaser, and it’s clear that some kind of solution is a necessity. Among the most common are strip curtains — plastic strips which hang down from the back of the truck, acting as a physical barrier to slow the movement of air between inside and outside the compartment.

Strip curtains are not an ineffective solution, but they do come with several drawbacks. First and foremost, the plastic strips become dirty and clouded quickly; cleaning them is not an easy task and adds one more item to the truck’s maintenance list. As one might imagine, dirt and grime hanging on plastic sheets near food products is not ideal. Strip curtains also obstruct the view to the outside for those working inside the truck. Passing through the curtain onto the loading ramp can be a safety risk in such conditions, especially during busy operations. These concerns merit the consideration of another option altogether.

The Solution: How Air Curtains Make a Difference

Slim profile air curtains, installed at the top of the entrance to the refrigerated compartment of the truck, are the ideal solution. The operating principles are remarkably simple: using an electric motor, the curtain sucks in air from outside the truck. This air is then forced through a special array of tubes which creates “laminar flow,” or a sheet of air that moves with a uniform speed and direction. This flowing sheet of air is strong enough to create a barrier between the top and bottom of the compartment while remaining pleasantly gentle to those passing through while loading.

Activated once the doors roll up, the air curtain will continue operating throughout the entire load/unload operation. The air barrier it creates seals off the interior, allowing only a very small amount of warm exterior air to enter. Likewise, the loss of cold air is kept to a minimum. Fluctuations in temperature become easier for equipment to handle and control without overly taxing the refrigeration systems. Alongside keeping cold air in, air curtains will also keep small flying insects out — an essential attribute for better hygiene inside the truck.

This hardware is easy to install for most refrigerated trucks and typically requires little maintenance, owing to their simple mode of operation. Cleaning is easy as well — a regular dusting using compressed air will keep the flow strong. Thanks to their long hours of dependable operation, refrigerated truckers can realize savings by investing in air curtains.

Determining How to Outfit Your Trucks with This Technology

Making the switch to this technology can yield savings, improvements in convenience, and even safer daily operations. With that in mind, what do you need to consider to take the next steps in investigating this option? Choosing a reliable supplier should be your first step.

At Air Door Distributors, we bring years of experience to the table along with an in-depth understanding of air curtains and how to make them work best across all kinds of industries. For trucks, the sizing of air curtains is especially important. Our trained and professional staff can aid you in working through the options available and how they will fit into your budget. To find out more about how we can assist you in achieving improved conditions in refrigerated trucks, contact us today.

Does it ever seem as though no matter where you look, there’s always something making outlandish or exaggerated claims about what their product can accomplish? There are apps pitched as the silver bullet to productivity problems, hardware that only iterates slightly on previous versions, and no end to the amount of marketing puffery that follows. Given that, it’s natural to approach any broad claims no matter the product.

If you operate a restaurant, warehouse, or even an office building, energy costs and equipment wear are always a concern. Perhaps you’ve heard about air curtains, or at least the claims that they can be a big help in saving on energy. Are air curtains as effective as people say they are, and do they actually work as described?

How It’s Supposed to Work: Air Curtain Operation

A quick primer on what an air curtain does is essential to understanding the facts. The claim is simple: air curtains keep conditioned air inside and hot exterior air outside where it should remain, generating savings on energy. The hardware creates this barrier by pulling in air, compressing it to increase its speed, and directing it to the floor in a continuous stream. It’s this invisible “curtain” that keeps air from escaping, as it cannot easily flow through the air stream. What air does move into the stream quickly reaches the floor. Some seeps back inside, while other air exits; the net effect is ideally negligible.

So, do they really work? The answer is a clear “yes” — and the numbers don’t lie. Consider one case study assembled by Berner International, a leading manufacturer of air curtains, which looked at the impact of air curtains positioned over fast food restaurant walk-in coolers. After one week, the restaurants observed a reduction of nearly two hours in the amount of time the refrigerator’s compressor operated. Extrapolated out to a year, this improvement saves more than 100 hours of operational time. Less wear and tear means fewer emergencies when a walk-in breaks, and fewer funds expended on maintenance and repairs.

More importantly, however, the installation translates into real-world savings, too. The reduced operating time works out to an energy savings of approximately $450 each year. Not only do these savings ensure that any investment in an air curtain sees a return without delay, but it also means these units practically pay for themselves in no time at all.

These units perform well when covering doorways for even very large buildings as well. Maintaining a stable indoor climate has typically been the job of vestibules, but air curtains today are recognized as a very viable alternative to additional structural enhancements. In another case study, a large convention center in Chicago chose to install Berner air curtains over all the entrances into the building. With frequent events and long periods when many or all the facility’s doors remain open, climate control was a difficult challenge. With the air curtains in place, interior temperatures easily remained in the correct range — and generated projected annuals savings in excess of $70,000. Based on those numbers, it’s safe to say that air curtains do work to save energy.

Air Curtains Do More Than Control Temperature

There is another important claim to address about air curtain operation — that they can keep out small flying insects, unpleasant odors, and even dust. Thinking about it, this would make sense. The stream of air must be strong enough to reach the ground, but not enough to disrupt those walking inside. While it won’t bother a person, that gentle stream is a rushing river of air to something as small as a mosquito or a fly. Likewise, the air will push down any dust floating inward. What does the evidence say about these claims, though?

Again, real-world efforts prove that the claims are not an exaggeration. Berner supplied air curtains to a restaurant that featured large doors which opened to allow for a free flow of space from the interior dining room to the exterior. Health inspectors noted that too many flying insects were entering the restaurant. After putting air curtains in place, inspectors were satisfied to find that no significant insect activity was still ongoing indoors. As an additional bonus, the restaurant gained the ability to leave the doors open all the time — enticing even more visitors to come and have a meal.

Exploring Air Curtains for Your Purposes

With clear advantages and a host of practical examples showcasing that air curtains really do have the benefits manufacturers claim, these units can make a difference in all kinds of applications. Are you curious about what a curtain could offer your business? At Air Door Distributors, we are your direct link to the leading hardware on the market today. Combined with the advice that you may need to choose the correct size and type of curtain, you’ll find it’s a straightforward path to saving energy, improving comfort, and developing a more hygienic space. To discuss your air curtain requirements with a dedicated professional today, reach out to us by calling us at 866-402-1642 or filling out our online contact form.