Air filters for Peacevillage International

Oberhausen/Aachen/Essen. Peacevillage International, a globally recognized non-profit organization that has been helping injured and sick children from war and crisis zones all over the world for decades, has received four anti-corona indoor air filters on permanent loan from Krantz GmbH of Aachen. The subsidiary of Essen-based energy company STEAG GmbH, which specializes in air purification and waste air treatment systems, is therefore supporting the efforts of Peacevillage to ensure that the 86 children currently housed there, as well as the numerous full-time and volunteer caregivers, get through the pandemic safely and free of infection.

So far, Peacevillage International has been spared infections with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus thanks to prudent and consistent hygiene measures. “In the residential facility of Peacevillage, the children continue to live their daily lives as normal. At the same time, we take care to isolate life in the facility as much as possible to protect the children and to limit outside contact to the absolute minimum,” reports Natalie Vienken, head of home at Peacevillage International.

Highly effective against pathogens and energy-efficient at the same time
In the future, four indoor air filters from the Aachen-based ventilation specialist Krantz will help Peacevillage maintain its faultless infection record. The highly effective “Krantz VIRUSPROTECT” air purifiers filter and neutralize 99.995 percent of all microorganisms, including corona or seasonal flu viruses, from the room air by means of an H14 HEPA filter element. Since the devices do not require heat, UV light or ozone to neutralize the pathogens or spores, they are also energy-efficient thanks to a special coating on the filter system. The operating costs per device are only around 50 euros per year, which is very low, and the maintenance costs are also manageable.

Employees encourage support for Peacevillage
“The idea of donating four of our devices to Peacevillage came from our employees," says Norbert Schröder, Managing Director of Krantz GmbH. The company had recently asked its employees for ideas on which charitable institutions or organizations Krantz should support free of charge with the anti-COVID air filters. “Peacevillage International was one of the most frequently mentioned suggestions. For this reason, and because the dedicated work of Peacevillage for the benefit of children worldwide deserves every support, especially in these times, we made contact and offered support in the form of the four units.”

Welcome support
Birgit Stifter, who has been managing Peacevillage International together with Kevin Dahlbruch since the summer of 2019, is grateful for this practical help: “We welcome anything that helps to bring as much normality as possible back into the everyday lives of the children who receive medical care here at Peacevillage, with the greatest possible protection against infection."

Consequently, two of the devices provided will in future clean the indoor air in the communally used dining room, and the other two devices will be set up in rooms used for lessons or seminars.

Ideal for schools and classrooms
In fact, the “Krantz VIRUSPROTECT” is designed especially for use in schools and classrooms: “The unit with its integrated CO₂ sensor is designed for rooms with an area of up to 120 square meters,” Norbert Schröder explains. Originally, the device was designed for up to 90 square meters, but in the course of the final test runs and preliminary trials, it was improved once again to include a fourth cleaning stage. “In this form, the “Krantz VIRUSPROTECT” is also excellently suitable and above all safe for correspondingly larger rooms, thanks to a cleaning capacity of up to 1,000 cubic meters per hour.”

This means that the device is not only suitable for enabling the children at the Peacevillage to eat together again in the future under even safer hygienic conditions. “The built-in aerosol filter is of laboratory quality and is also used in medical research facilities. In addition, the unit is particularly recommended for schools because of its quiet operation, in order to make a significant contribution to reducing the risk of infection there.”

In fact, with the help of the “Krantz VIRUSPROTECT”, classroom instruction in schools can be conducted under safe conditions even during the winter months, without having to rely on continuous ventilation to reduce the viral load.

Ensuring hygiene – enabling normality
In any case, Peacevillage is confident that, thanks to the “Krantz VIRUSPROTECT”, from next year onwards it will again be able to host seminars and similar events as face-to-face events under safe hygienic conditions. “Devices such as the air filters now thankfully made available to us by Krantz can be a way of regaining a minimum of everyday normality without having to fear increased risks of infection until a sufficient number of people have received a COVID vaccination,” as Birgit Stifter hopes.