By Curtis Rosol
As a new school year begins, facility teams are once again balancing comfort, cleanliness and operating costs across campuses.
Air curtains can help support all three. Mounted above a door opening, an air curtain creates a controlled stream of air that helps separate two environments, typically the conditioned indoors from the outdoors, without creating a physical barrier.
Mars Air has refined the technology since 1962, and today the performance benefits are measurable:
- Reduce the loss of conditioned air through open doors by up to 70%
- Cut airborne contaminants by up to 70%
- Replace dirty strip curtains with a cleaner, lower-maintenance barrier
- Meet foodservice health codes with units certified to the ANSI/NSF 37 sanitation standard
What schools are using today
At a national school nutrition conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, feedback from nutrition directors, kitchen managers and cafeteria staff revealed a roughly 50/50 split between schools already using air curtains and those relying on other methods.
Among schools without air curtains, common approaches included:
- Strip curtains that get dirty quickly, create an obstructed doorway and need frequent replacement
- Box fans mounted above doors, an improvised fix most admitted was not working
- Nothing at all
The takeaway was clear: Schools recognize the need for a barrier at frequently used openings, but many may not be aware that air curtains offer a more effective option or assume the technology is outside their budget.
Why the gap?
Two reasons came up again and again: awareness and budget. Air curtains are often simply not part of the conversation, while limited facility funding is prioritized for larger needs, such as aging HVAC systems.
But that sequence may be worth reconsidering. When older HVAC equipment is already working hard to maintain indoor temperatures, allowing conditioned air to escape through frequently opened doors only adds to the burden. An air curtain can be the smart first step to “stop the bleeding” by reducing loss of conditioned air at the door opening, at a fraction of the cost of a full HVAC replacement.
Where they fit on a campus
Air curtains can be effectively placed in a variety of locations throughout a school, including:
- Front entrances, where hundreds of students pass through daily and conditioned air escapes
- Cafeteria entrances, where food odors drift out and draw flying insects
- Portable classrooms, which heat up fast and are rarely optimized for temperature control
- Walk-in coolers and freezers, where they curb condensation and frost buildup while ensuring stable temperature
- Commercial dishwasher dryer, retrofitted to the end of a commercial dishwasher to dry wares without added floor space
A growing rebate opportunity
Rebates are also making air curtains more accessible. While programs vary by location, utilities in states such as New York, California, Oregon and Washington already offer meaningful incentives for qualifying installations. At the same time, an industry-wide standard is in development through AMCA.
The need is already there. Closing the gap starts with helping schools understand what is possible, what it costs and what they could save.
Explore the potential savings for your own facility with Mars Air’s ROI calculator: https://www.marsair.com/roi-calculator
To learn more about how air curtains can support school facilities, watch Mars Air Systems webinar on the topic: Beyond the Cafeteria: Air Curtain Applications in Schools