Cleaning the Air

Episode 75

Since March 2020, the topic of cleaning the air has grown. Public interest around indoor air quality started with the environmental movement of the 1960s. Since then, concern over the air we breathe continues to grow. Let’s be direct about this. Depending on the facility you’re entering you might have several choices.

Your Choices for Exposure

Without stirring unnecessary worry, your choices about exposure when you enter your workplace, a store or your doctor’s office depend on that space. Are there automatic doors? Can you use your elbow to push things? Are the restroom facilities “touchless”? All of those options might provide you an opportunity to avoid physical contact. But there’s one thing every one of us will HAVE to do. Breathe. You can wear a mask and we’re not here to debate their efficacy. We ARE here to talk about a product that can positively affect the health and safety of homes and offices

Cleaning the Air and Safety

This is an important point. In the same manner that cleaning solutions are applied to surfaces, cleaning the air has options. Many of those have inherent risks. Mercury bulbs, ozone and contaminated filters are all negative potential options. The product we’re discussing today bypasses all of those. AND it’s engineered right here in Rochester, NY. By taking a brand-new look at the science behind sunlight our guests have produced an amazing solution.

Cleaning the Air with UV-C

Using recent innovation on LED products, Michael Viggiani and Kasey Raab from Destiny UV-C speak about their products’ approach to health and safety. I bring this up to our commercial cleaning customers because it benefits you in several ways. These are products your clients can use to reduce pathogens in their spaces. Those you are cleaning. These are also products that you can refer and receive a commission. Ultimately, these products will make the spaces you’re cleaning healthier for everyone, including you. If you’re interested in learning more contact me here or our guests directly at their website. Mention you heard about them from The Doc!

 

This Week’s Podcast transcript can be found below.

 

Ray

Joel. (Yes.) We have guests today.

 

Joel

Not just one. We’ve got two.

I’m excited.

 

Ray

First time we’ve had two guests.

 

Joel

It is the first time we’ve had two guests. I’m excited about it. We have Mike Viggiani from-

 

Ray

Destiny UV-C.

 

Joel

And we have Kasey Raab from Central Services, a woman-owned and operated commercial electrical installation company here in Rochester.

 

Ray

Excellent. Thank you. Guys, thanks for being here today. I appreciate it.

 

Kasey

Thank you. Am I guest number one or number two?

 

Michael

Number two.

 

Joel

I’m good at number two.

 

Ray

Nobody ever asked to be number two, so I guess it’s yours by default. Sorry, Kasey. In fact, everyone on this show today has very close ties to these products. The fascinating piece about the product and the product line, other than just not made in USA, but made in Rochester. Mike, I’m going to start with you because the engineering starts with you. Tell us about the Destiny product and why it’s so revolutionary.

 

Michael

Well, I spent about 30 years in the HVAC division and decided to create a product that would help reduce outside air and bring more return air back.

 

Ray

If I’m understanding, it’s reducing the amount of outside air, new air that we’re bringing in. Now, for a lot of people, they’re going to hear that and say, “But I want outside air”, because they don’t understand why not to. So I’m going to ask, why is that important?

 

Michael

That’s important because if you’re bringing more outside air in, you’re reducing your return air. And as you reduce your return air, your pressurizing the building and moving the germs around the building and not bring them back to the HVC system.

 

Ray

So at that point, the air that’s recirculating, it’s not that it’s not fresh, it’s already been conditioned once. So, retreating it through the system is actually making it cleaner.

 

Michael

Yeah, because you’re still pressurizing the building. But you’re bringing the return air back and treating the air that’s in the space. Otherwise, if we’re bringing more outside air in, we’re just pushing the air around the building. We’re not actually capturing the return air.

 

Joel

I have a question, Mike. I have a lot of clients that are school districts and senior living facilities. A lot of them are older buildings. We all know with COVID, this was brought up a lot of got to bring in fresh air. But a lot of these buildings can’t necessarily be retrofitted to do that. So your product that you’ve designed allows for the inside air to be treated and maintained without having to bring in all of this outside air, and either in the winter, having to heat it up, or in the summer, having to cool it.

 

Michael

That’s correct.

 

Ray

So, there’s a savings there. What makes this different than another product that filters or scrubs air?

 

Michael

Well, we’re trying to kill airborne viruses. A lot of stuff pass through the filters. We’re trying to kill stuff before it hits the filters. The filters collect all the particles and also becomes a hazmat situation. Because a lot of filters are biohazard. So, our lights can clean the filters so they’re not biohazard.

 

Ray

So within the unit, there’s a UV-C component that is treating the air as it’s passing through the ductwork or the furnace, depending on where it’s placed.

 

Michael

That’s correct.

 

Ray

And a unit also on the filter, so is no longer a biohazard.

 

Michael

That’s also correct.

 

Ray

If I remember correctly, you brought that up to another manufacturer who hadn’t even seen that as an issue. They had completely missed that as a component of their product.

 

Michael

That’s correct.

 

Ray

It’s nice having the smart people on the team.

 

Michael

Yeah. Our system also has its own standalone PLC, so you can monitor it yourself right there on a unit.

 

Ray

People who are listening will have no idea what PLC means.

 

Michael

Program Logical controller.

 

Ray

For the building maintenance team, for the environmental services This team, this is going to be located where for them?

 

Michael

On their HVAC unit.

 

Ray

Okay, so anyone in environmental services or facility services, that’s going to be one of their stops for the day.

 

Michael

That’s correct.

 

Ray

Other than controlling the system from there, what are they going to see there?

 

Michael

They’ll see the air temp, they’ll see the UV-C rate of the bulb that’s being on right at point of time, temperature, humidity, CO₂, how much current is being drawn, and they could do it on their system or they could do it on their standalone. If they have a system, they can just set their desk and look at it.

 

Ray

Michael, transitioning Coming from that statement about killing germs, killing viruses. How does that translate to either a savings or a benefit? I see the benefit, but oftentimes these decisions come down to dollars and cents for our customers. How does that change things for them?

 

Kasey

Well, I think you really need to look at the long run as a business owner. What is it worth to you to have your employees in their seats in the office every day?

 

Ray

Joel, we’ve discussed absenteeism before.

 

Joel

And presenteeism, which is when you’re at work but sick.

 

Ray

Those people.

 

Joel

There was a whole study done in 2006 by Kimberly Clark about the value of claimed. There’s a contact with the ISSA that we can put in the link.

 

Ray

We’ll put that in the description below.

 

Joel

which talks about the value of having people actually in the seat.

 

Ray

Kasey, is that concept what you’re referring to?

 

Kasey

Yes.

 

Ray

How do you see that easily presented to prospective clients and helping them make that decision? I mean, would you love to sell product, obviously. But you want it to be a benefit? Right.

 

Kasey

I mean, we can go back to how this entire thing started. Michael started engineering and designing this through COVID-19. Think of the losses just from that pandemic. That could have been avoided if we had something like this back then. The amount of people that were out sick, the businesses that had to close, and the amount of people that switched to working from home. That all cost money.

 

Ray

Yeah. And productivity.

 

Kasey

And sanity.

 

Ray

And sanity. All true.

 

Joel

Just in the cleaning for health piece, if you can reduce absenteeism by just 40%, that’s going to save business owners billions of dollars in the United States. Billions.

 

Ray

Joel, I know that you have looked at this product extensively. What was your impression?

 

Joel

I’m blown away because I’ve been such an advocate against hand dryers and the way that the UVC hand dryer is put together and reduces the amount of particulates in a restroom. And the fact that you’re actually blowing clean air on a person’s hands. That alone was one thing that made me want to look more. Then on the whole HVAC system. Because I do have so many clients that the cost of trying to redo their entire heating and cooling systems in these older buildings is so cost prohibitive. This is a perfect option to retrofit current buildings by just a fraction of the price.

 

Ray

I think what I’d like to add on that, since your customers are primarily small to medium cleaning companies.

 

Joel

Yes, but their end-use clients could be small medium, medium, and large scale. Actually Destiny UV-C has products for the small company, the medium company, and the large, including sports complexes, churches, schools, hospitals.

 

Ray

I want to hit both of those. Speaking to your clients first. Some of the most likely products are the hand dryer because it touches what they’re doing. That’s an easy piece to reach out to you for. Lots of information to be had, and you can connect them on how to source those, get them ordered, and get them out.

 

Joel

And not just in Rochester. We can do it anywhere in the US.

 

Ray

Yeah, they ship everywhere. A beautiful unit, by the way. Going beyond that, for Destiny UVC, we have the hand dryer. There is the HVAC unit for both residential and commercial. There is a water system as well. And for other opportunities, those businesses who are looking to build their business with these products, HVAC companies, environmental services companies, there is an opportunity to go into distribution. Kasey, how should they get in touch with you and Michael?

 

Kasey

They can visit our website, DestinyUVC.com. There’s all the information right there. Phone numbers, contact form, emails, everything you need right there.

 

Ray

Excellent. Michael, anything to add?

 

Joel

For those of you who can’t see, he’s nodding his head no.

 

Ray

Mike, I love ya.

 

Kasey

Thank you for having us.

 

Joel

Thank you, Ray.

 

Michael

Thank you, Ray.