Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1278896
36 PCB007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2020 Luxor. I asked the people at Bellagio, "How much money am I saving you with this pro- cess?" They said, "Don't worry about it. Just keep on coming back." But I would estimate they're probably saving easily $1–2 million a year just on their energy bill. I don't know the exact numbers, but I would guess they spend around $20 million a year on energy usage, with 70% of that probably going through the HVAC system. I know that it can improve the efficiency of their air handlers by 50–60%; the savings are very substantial. We also know for a fact that we can have a fundamental effect on a building's energy con- sumption and indoor air quality. No one really thinks about it, but the processing of air is very fundamental. It defines the modern world. Dallas, Phoenix, and Las Vegas would not exist the way they do without air conditioning; the same is true with Singapore, Hong Kong, etc. HVAC is a major driver of energy consump- tion in the world. It's also a major driver of carbon emissions, and there's a pretty good chance it's a major driver of poor human health because the average American spends 90% of their time every day within a climate- controlled environment. Every one of those systems is running at some level of poor indoor quality. Dan Feinberg: Is this something that could be used in a home air condi- tioning unit? This could have a huge market. Metropoulos: Let's chat about the market. HVAC systems are valued at somewhere around $4 trillion around the world, with $130 bil- lion worth of HVAC system materi- als purchased every year. The major- ity of those purchases are to replace the coils from the existing systems. In any high-rise or building, it's only a matter of time until they have to replace those coils; it's pretty com- mon for them to be replaced every 10–15 years. Replacing one coil in a big system could cost $100,000– $200,000, and a big building could have 50–70 air handlers, so it's not cheap. Johnson: That is a lot of money to consider spending on a consumable. Metropoulos: Exactly. I'll give you an example. General Motors invited me last year to their Fairfax assembly plant in Kansas City, Mis- souri, where they have a giant system with a 75,000-CFM (cubic feet per minute) air handler. The coil on this system was 18 feet high, 22 feet across, and three feet deep—a monster— and the plant has 150 of those systems on its roof. Even with employing a crazy amount of filtration to prevent fouling, it was still loaded up with severe hydrocarbon fouling from the manufacturing because of the welding they do there. In just a few years, this system was about 96% plugged, and every one of GM's indus- trial engineers looked at the system and said, "This thing's ruined. There's nothing you can do about it." They tried everything—pressure washing, chemicals, steam, etc.—and they couldn't move the needle. The Blue Box system is designed to be com- Global HVAC systems total about $4 trillion globally.