https://news.yahoo.com/turn-off-air-conditioning-experts-095902933.html Some businesses were unwilling to re-open in the phase 1 because they suspected and wanted to make sure their air conditions, air systems had the proper filters...most businesses, grade schools, universities have proper filters that can handle airborne diseases like Coronavirus. A lesson obviously not learned from the days of Legionnaires Disease. wrbtrader
aircon filters wouldn't filter the virus as the virus is too tiny. but it can filter out the flies. You need to have a very special system using HEPA filters to filter the tiny tiny particles. it is used in CLEAN ROOM for wafer fabrication process etc the experts are not experts at all. You can't simply off the air con when the building is designed to have an air-con system. most buildings RECYCLE about 60% air (ie pump in 40% fresh air). some buildings probably RECYCLE 100% air. You will surely get very sick. hospitals recycle 0% air (hopefully). So simply don't recycle the air but pump in 100% fresh air. But the air-con system may not be powerful enough to handle the extra load. Also, the electricity bill will go up massively. what to do with the incoming fresh air to the air-con system? just have a simple filter system. Or do more by scrubbing/washing the air, shining it with killer ray ...
Where can I buy HEPA filters and whether they can somehow be used in a home air conditioning system in case someone from my family gets sick?
That's what some businesses and schools in my area are using...HEPA filters. I myself have been using Air Purifiers with HEPA filters since January 2017 in my home after I was hospitalized in the fall of 2016 from a deadly bacteria infection. Not sure where I caught it but I wanted to make sure I eliminated my home as the source. By the summer of 2017...purchased a new vacuum cleaner that only uses HEPA filters. Then in 2018 convince the school at a school board meeting to update their school filter system to use HEPA filters...of course they didn't. Yet, by the spring of 2020 in a Pandemic...they unanimously voted to purchase new Air Purifiers for all the classrooms and administration offices with HEPA filters. They aren't cheap...even the portable Air Purifiers for my home cost from $70 - $100 per every 2 - 3 years but the brand I use say 8 months of every day use. I think the school's commercial HEPA filters cost more because its a commercial system and used daily...they need to be changed every 6 months. Being home a lot more than usual during this Pandemic and working out at home more...the home Air Purifiers with HEPA filters makes a big difference in the air quality especially for those with allergies. A close friend of mine has a dog (gift from the grandparents to their children) and he found out he was allergic to the dog. The dog had to spend most of its time outside during the Pandemic. Now he too uses a home Air Purifier with HEPA filter in his air conditioning and portable units...the dog can now come into the house without triggering his allergies. More importantly, he's less paranoid about the Pandemic especially with his teenagers because he's immune system compromise...cancer survivor from 2019. wrbtrader
I get mine from Amazon...they have portable Air Purifiers for the Home and Auto. In contrast, the HEPA filters for Air Conditioning (not Air Purifiers) are typically sold 2 - 4 per pack and cost cheaper than the portable Air Purifiers. By the way, I know a guy down the street from me with an RV...he uses two portable Air Purifiers in his RV...one in the back in the sleep area and one in the front. He's still in the U.S. traveling the country without any problems. He'll return back to Québec, Canada after the borders re-open assuming he doesn't find a 2nd home / property in the U.S. which is the purpose for his travel trip... He and his wife crossed the border in their RV about 2 weeks before the borders closed in the beginning of the Pandemic. wrbtrader
Already some of my relatives have been ill with this virus and fortunately they did not have serious complications.
you can find lots of HEPA filters in buildings, vacuum cleaners, home air con units etc majority of those are fake HEPA filters. Marketing folks like to use the words ' HEPA filter' to attract customers. Do note that putting a real Hepa filter in our home air con system WOULDN'T work. It is a technically stupid idea but a very smart move by the marketing/sales folks. The real /true HEPA filters are mainly found in industries (wafer fab, pharmaceutical industries ...) where the rooms are specially constructed, and the filtration system are of high quality. and people have to wear protective suits. I can elaborate further about real HEPA filters found in industries vs thousands of fake HEPA filters found in households. I'd better stop here.
I hope mine from Honeywell (certified) aren't fake (they say on the box they are certified) but I do know "fake HEPA filters" was discussed at the school board meeting. They made sure their commercial filter systems were certified although I never heard about people in the rooms with HEPA filter systems being used are wearing protective suits. Also, I do remember when I re-order a replacement HEPA filter for my vacuum cleaner...the store told me I should only purchase the HEPA filter from their stores because there are "a lot" of fake ones out their that are not certified if you buy them cheaper 3rd party. Seriously, if you have on a protective suit...you wouldn't need a HEPA filtration in your room...right ??? Thus, maybe you're talking about the installation / removal of HEPA filters in commercial settings that requires a protective suit. wrbtrader
This is the article I read back in 2017 about fake HEPA filters although its been updated from 2017 with additional warnings here in 2020 @ https://www.usairpurifiers.com/blog...need-to-know-about-fake-air-purifier-filters/ https://molekule.science/pros-cons-hepa-filter/ Many many years ago...in college for a summer research, I worked with "endotoxins" with a researcher that was impressed with my class paper on the Biochemistry of Endotoxins / Inflammation. Thus, I'm more interested in HEPA filters capturing certain particles (bacteria / mold) and then releasing them back into the air that we breath if not cleaned properly...something we do not want to happen. Simply, I'm aware of the limitations of HEPA filters and their storage... Such as only changing / cleaning the Air Purifiers outdoors only while wearing a face mask...never indoors. Also, on Amazon, I've seen phrases like HEPA like, HEPA style and True HEPA that can be very confusing to a new buyer. Always best to stick with the same filter brand that came with the Air Purifier model / Vacuum cleaner. In addition, I have a personal and business interest in HEPA filters because I do use them...I own a photography business. We use HEPA filters in our commercial dark rooms for +10 years now and I use it at home in my own darkroom since 2014. In fact, after I became ill in 2016...my family had an inspection of the air filtration system in my business in France...location of my business...where I became ill / hospitalized / life support / coma for 2 months. In addition, my home darkroom here in Québec, Canada was inspected too prior to my return back home. Health officials couldn't find the source...it was not from my filtration system. They were clean. Till this day, I do not know how I became sick because it happen on a vacation from Québec to Chicago to South Dakota back to Chicago and then to France...especially considering no family member / relative nor employee became ill...it was just me. Heck, it could have been something as simple as someone being very sick and coughing on a grocery cart in a grocery store in which minutes later I then used the same grocery cart without knowing a sick person had coughed / sneezed all over it. Anyways, after you've almost been killed by an airborne bacteria from an unknown source...you get a little paranoid going forward especially in a Pandemic. wrbtrader