Washoe County Jail Experiences the Benefits of Ultraviolet Disinfection in their Medical Housing Unit

The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office provides law enforcement services for the unincorporated area of Washoe County, Nevada.  It is responsible for operating the only adult detention facility for pretrial detainees and sentenced misdemeanants within Washoe County.
 
In 2010, the county was looking for a cost effective way to treat the air in the county jail’s medical isolation unit.  Indoor air quality (IAQ) was a major concern as inmates housed in the unit can be infected with contagious microbial pathogens, including tuberculosis (TB).  At the time, operating procedures required extensive air exchanges which consumed large amounts of energy and could potentially shorten the life of the air handling units.
 
Washoe County contacted Jace Cook from Cook Mechanical & Air Systems (CMAS) to find a solution.  After discussions with county authorities, he developed a plan to address both the IAQ and energy concerns for the jail’s medical isolation unit.  “By installing the V-MAX UV airstream disinfection system from UVDI, we were able to significantly reduce the requirements for outside air flow and minimize the number of air changes necessary in the jail’s medical unit,” reported Mr. Cook.  “Not only did the system deliver improved indoor air quality, but it also generated substantial energy savings by reducing the air handling unit (AHU) cooling load for treating large volumes of outside air.”
 
Scott Rose, Building System Controls Specialist for Washoe County couldn’t be more pleased with the results.  When asked about how the system is performing after several years of service he stated, “Better than ever, we had no idea we would see the results we have and the longevity of the lifetime for the bulbs is better than expected.  Cook Mechanical & Air Systems has been great in the support of the project and we look forward to applying this technology on future AHU retrofits.”
 
The V-MAX system, installed by the Washoe County Jail, offers flexible and effective high intensity ultraviolet germicidal irradiation for airstream and surface disinfection applications.  Air stream disinfection, also known as “on the fly kill”, is the application of high intensity UV-C energy to disinfect a fast moving air stream to neutralize microbial pathogens.   
 
To learn more about UV-C disinfection solutions, please visit www.UVDI.com, email info@UVDI.com or call (877) 787-3882.
 
About UltraViolet Devices, Inc.
UVDI is an ISO 9001-2008 certified manufacturer of UV-C products for air, surface and water disinfection.  Under the ALTRU-V® brand, UVDI markets a full line of products for the HVACR market designed to reduce energy consumption and lower maintenance costs while delivering cleaner, healthier air.  UVDI’s Sparks Technology™ brand provides gas phase filtration products for use in commercial and industrial applications worldwide. UVDI MED provides hospital grade UV disinfection technologies engineered for the healthcare industry.

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Paul Cochrane

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Cochrane & Associates, LLC

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