The pandemic has caused indoor air quality to become a bigger concern for many commercial building owners and managers, due to the fact that the COVID-19 virus is primarily spread through the air. This has led industry experts, including ASHRAE, to recommend increasing ventilation and upgrading filtration in order to help mitigate the transmission of the virus.
With VRF systems, the best practice usually calls for providing a separate mechanical ventilation system to ensure enough outdoor air is being introduced to the occupied space. The two products most often paired with VRF systems are energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) and dedicated outside air systems (DOAS), and both can typically be used in new and existing buildings.