Energy Implications of Increased Ventilation in Commercial Buildings to Mitigate Airborne Pathogen Transmission

One proposed mitigation to reduce transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and other airborne pathogens is to increase ventilation in buildings. This measure can be difficult to implement in existing buildings and has the potential environmental costs of increased energy consumption to condition the additional airflow, as well as other potential costs such as the disposal of existing serviceable mechanical equipment and the manufacture and delivery of new equipment. This paper focuses on the increased energy consumption caused by increased ventilation rates in commercial buildings to mitigate airborne pathogen transmission. We used energy modelling software to compare energy use in different typical commercial buildings in different climates at current standard ventilation rates to the energy use in the same buildings with increased ventilation rates and filtration. Our analysis shows that increased filtration has little effect on energy used for air conditioning, but that increased ventilation has a significant effect.