Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

California District Installs 1,500 Carrier OptiClean Air Scrubbers

  • By Matt Jones
  • 03/22/21

The Manteca Unified School District in Manteca, Calif., has installed 1,500 Carrier OptiClean Dual-Mode Air Scrubber & Negative Air Machines across 30 schools in preparation to fully reopen. The product, which was named one of TIME’s 100 Best Inventions of 2020, will help improve the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) for the more than 27,000 returning MUSD students, faculty, and staff.

“We’ve spent the last several months analyzing every facet of our organization in order to develop a comprehensive strategy designed to create a healthier environment for our students and staff,” said MUSD Superintendent Dr. Clark Burke. “The air quality in our area is often affected by the extensive local agriculture industry, and lately, regional wildfires have also contributed to poor air quality. After reviewing a number of indoor air quality solutions available, we are confident that the OptiClean product is the right fit for our needs. By placing an OptiClean unit in each classroom, we feel that we’ll not only help improve our IAQ, but also provide peace of mind to our students, their parents and staff.”

OptiClean Dual-Mode Air Scrubber & Negative Air Machine

The OptiClean Dual-Mode Air Scrubber & Negative Air Machine was put into development in early 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic for use in infectious isolation rooms in hospitals. It pulls in air, scrubs it with a HEPA filter, and blows it back out, reducing ambient contaminants in the surrounding area. The product plugs into a standard wall outlet and takes up less than 3 square feet of floor space.

Other California School districts, including the San Bernardino City Unified School District and the Alvord Unified School District, similarly selected the OptiClean product as their air quality solution during preparations to return to in-person learning. The districts recently purchased a combined total of 5,200 units to serve a total of 80,000 students, teachers, and staff.

“Schools and school districts continue to evaluate the IAQ of their facilities and what can be done to help improve those environments for their students and staff,” said Carrier President, NA Residential & Light Commercial, Justin Keppy. “We’re pleased to be working with Manteca Unified School District by providing one part of the solution for healthier and safer indoor environments. Our OptiClean units can help reduce contaminants in classroom air and inspire confidence for parents, students, teachers and staff as school districts safely return to in-person learning.”

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • University of Kansas Breaks Ground on Entrepreneurship Hub

    The University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new KU Entrepreneurship Hub, according to university news. The Hub is part of the university’s School of Business and will include spaces for experiential learning and programming.

  • Designing for Every Mind

    Learning environments have the power to shape not just what students know, but who they become. When a school is designed with genuine empathy—for the full range of ways students think, sense, and engage with the world—it becomes more than a building. It becomes a catalyst for growth, confidence, and belonging. That is the animating idea behind neurodiverse design, and it is one that is transforming how more architects and designers are thinking about school design.

  • Surging Demand for Student Housing Fuels Major Campus Investment Opportunities

    University leaders throughout the U.S. are accelerating plans to modernize and expand student housing as enrollment stabilizes and demand for on-campus living rebounds. Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics indicates that total postsecondary enrollment is projected to grow through the end of the decade, with undergraduate enrollment alone expected to increase by more than 8 percent by 2030.

  • abstract illustration of school gym

    How the Gymnasium Can Serve as a Model for Learning Space Design

    Multipurpose gyms work because flexibility was built into the brief from the start, not retrofitted later. The same logic applies to academic spaces.