"Every day we take in 18kg of air a day but nobody is talking about the air we breathe," Philip Chua, Director, Domestic Business Division, Panasonic Singapore said. Panasonic has studied how to improve air quality in addition to controlling temperature and humidity for more than half a century - 2018 is the 60th anniversary for Panasonic air-conditioners, he said.
Panasonic's Nanoe air-purification and filtering system is one technology that helps to improve air quality. Using nanotechnology, 480 billion OH radicals are released by the system per second to deactivate 99% of airborne bacteria and viruses in the filter’s indoor unit. It also neutralises odours. In a demonstration at MCE Asia, Nanoe completely removed the smell of durian from test swatches in 90 seconds. Nanoe is already in use in Toyota and Lexus cars.
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| The CO2 demo lab, showing how CO2 concentration levels can build up rapidly. Executive Director, Malaysia at Panasonic Ichiri Suganuma explained that Panasonic has a solution to CO2 concentrations building up rapidly in closed environments. Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) technology from Panasonic can remove CO2 and pipe in cool air that is free of PM 2. 5 particles. PM 2.5 refers to particulate matter which are smaller than 2.5 micrometres in size. |
CO2 management is particularly important for small office-home office (SOHO) environments, which are often poorly ventilated and air-conditioned for eight hours a day, he said.
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| A booth representative discusses SOHO air quality. |
Air quality is equally important for hotels. A survey by Expedia showed that 40% of respondents actually say indoor air quality (IAQ) is an important criterion when they book a hotel, Chua said. High CO2 levels affect productivity and performance. In a 2012 study, CO2 at 1,000 ppm caused statistically significant decrements in performance in six of nine scales of decision-making performance.
Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) technology from Panasonic can change CO2 levels quickly, helping people become more productive. ERV removes the polluted air and replaces it with outside air that has been filtered with Nanoe.
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An energy management system for rooms makes use of various IoT sensors.
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An Internet of Things (IoT) solution for hotels also keeps air quality high while managing energy in conjunction with Schneider technology.
The solution can activate or deactivate the ventilation, lighting and blinds intelligently with the help of sensors supporting the Zigbee standard. The sensors monitor room temperature, humidity and CO2, can tell whether doors are opened or closed, and detect if there are people inside.
For example, Panasonic Nanoe technology minimises odours and inhibits viruses, while door sensors will ensure that the air-conditioning is switched off if the door to the balcony has been opened. Motion and CO2 sensors can work together to determine if there are people in a room, and then switch off the lights if the room is empty.
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| Explaining how Aerowings work. |
Panasonic also demonstrated air-conditioning innovations at MCE Asia.
The Aerowings design has two independent blades that provide more control over the direction of the airflow. Traditionally, air-conditioners can only direct airflow to specific parts of the room, creating spots which can get too cold.
Aerowings can direct airflow to more parts of the room, and with the Shower Cooling capability, can direct air towards the ceiling for more even cooling in an area.
Explore:
Read the WorkSmart Asia blog posts about Singapore Green Building Week , super low energy buildings, and the TechTrade Asia blog posts about Surbana Jurong’s City of ____ and on Panasonic's device interconnectivity.
