F.A.Q
Have a question about Air Sentry?
See our FAQs below for answers to our most common questions or contact us.
The main filter is designed to operate for 24 months continuously in most health care environments without any significant degradation in performance.
Yes. In line with current policy and with an eye to HTM 03 we certificate each unit for 12 months with the client having a maximum time between services of 15 months to allow for problems with access etc.
Our filter is a unique five stage design evolved to meet the high flow requirements for use in hospital areas. The filter design meets the requirement for ULPA15 however the cost increases supplying to this specification. We therefore have each filter tested to HEPA14 using the clean room standard EN14644 part 3. Each filter is individually tested. Be aware that other companies use a manufacturing standard or single media in their approaches. If a filter is not tested to EN14644 part 3 it does not compare to Air Sentry®. Our standard filter can be supplied certificated to ULPA15 upon request and we are also able to supply filters to ULPA16.
Our filter is filtering to below 0.002um (2nm) and is tested as 99.9998% efficient at 0.3um – due to a nano effect 0.3um is the point of lowest efficiency for HEPA 14.
We also test at 0.2um, which is not part of the H14 certification process and this normally indicates a similar level or 99.9999% at 0.2um.
We will post a graph of particle sizes to demonstrate this shortly. We also filter gases within our filter design.
The units use a similar amount of electricity as a 100w electric light bulb. Each module doubles this but compared to conventional approaches Airsentry® is considerably cheaper.
We have experience of the system being used in Oncology, Neutropenic and H.I.V, I.T.U / I.C.U, P.I.C.U, OR Utility, Small OR, Burns, Imaging, Isolation and as a life extension system for failing OR areas where the existing system is supplemented.
Yes and no. The air flow and drying process affects them within the filter membrane where they are safely trapped. This is common to all H.E.P.A systems and is a well accepted approach to air quality maintenance and control. Once in the filter, pathogens cannot exit and the system is designed to run 24/7.
Lower quality systems either seek to exhaust the air, as it is not assured Ultra Clean, or try to use approaches such as UV or Ionisation to ‘kill’ pathogens. Our filtration quality is to such a high standard that at 0.3um 99.9998% of everything entering the filter is caught. That is much smaller than all viruses and droplet nuclei in normal room air. Our system has been tested and can maintain an ISO level of Ultra Clean Air in any current hospital ward area and has been deployed for this application to protect staff.
This is the clean room standard for filtration. Each filter comes individually tested and certificated to the clean room standard. The lower standard is EN1822 which is utilised by the majority of other suppliers. En1822 is a manufacturers standard where the filtration media is bulk tested prior to filter assembly. This means that if any damage occurs during assembly it will be passed on to the finished filter. EN14644 physically tests the finished filter and does not rely upon bulk testing. It is much more time intensive and therefore costly but it assures the end client that each filter is assured to be working as stated. Each filter change we then check this onsite to ensure that the final system is operating 100% to our parameters.
H.E.P.A is a range of efficiencies and you can buy an H14 filter which appears to be similar, indeed you can even find them on some vacuum cleaners! Our filters have been purpose designed for the job they do. Each one has to be hand made and is complex. Once finished they are individually tested and if they fail, are rejected. Lower standard filters are off the shelf and often claim they are tested when in fact this testing is on the medium prior to assembly. Our filters are 100% assured to operate to the parameters which facilitate whole room cleaning in a healthcare environment, at a filter grade of 99.9998% at 0.3um.
When somebody offers you a ‘H.E.P.A’ system, ask if it is tested to EN14644 part 3?
If it isn’t there is part of your price difference.
Air Sentry® is being specified for AGP areas. Our system is able to offer rapid deployment (from minutes for a mobile unit to a few hours if installed as a fixed one) and can maintain any enclosed area using a client specified approach ie we can utilise both UCV approaches of ultra clean recirculation and ultra clean filters input or exhaust air for pressure differential. The system can run in an AGP area maintaining the required air changes per hour but between patients can then be turned up to maximum, dramatically reducing the time between patients. Often 5 ACH can be achieved under 10 minutes.