Life Cycle Costs

Purpose
Air ventilation systems often account for the lion's share of a building's energy consumption and the pressure drop in air filters accounts for ar larger portion of the total pressure drop in a ventilation system. Thus from the viewpoint of increasing energy efficiency, there are strong reasons for optimizing the choice of air filters without compromising filtration requirements.

A life cycle cost can be made in different ways depending on application and purpose of the air filters. The Eurovent Recommendation gives a guideline, for calculating life cycle cost of air filters and a tool to minimize the running costs of an air handling installation.

Method
The annual energy and power costs (electricity) during the useful life or utilization time of the filters are converted to a present value. A corresponding procedure is adopted for future maintenance costs and also for the disposal or environmental costs.

Cost benefit from filters by reduced installation and duct cleaning or health benefit from better environment are not included in the calculation.

Calculation
The life cycle cost (LCC) could be defined as follows

Life cycle  cost (LCC) = Investment + LCCEnergy + LCCMaintenance + LCCDisposal

• Investment: Capital costs of the filter installation when the new ventilation system was first installed (filters + frame + labour). The capital cost could also include the building volume for filters.
   
• LCCEnergy: Present total cost of energy (electricity to power the fan).
  It is calculated from the average pressure drop of the filters which, during operation depends of the characteristics of the plant and is often taken as the mean value between initial pressure loss and final pressure loss. With the lower energy requirement, more and more systems are being designed for constant flow, and average pressure loss is the integrated value of the pressure drop vs. operation time.
   
• LCCMaintenance: Present total purchasing cost, including the cost of replacement filters and labour costs for replacement.
   
• LCCDisposal: Present total cost for the disposal of an air filter. By incinerating some energy could be gained.

Recommendation
AAF offers a wide range of filters providing the best Indoor Air Quality at minimum operating costs.

Main Products
Perfect Pleat HC/ Perfect Pleat Ultra (biostatic treated)
DriPak NX
DriPak GF
VariCel EcoPak / VariCel EcoPak (biostatic treated) 
VariCel VXL / VariCel VXL Ultra (biostatic treated)