HEPA Filters

[aikiman44]

Does anyone have experience with HEPA filters for office use? There are plenty of small units on Amazon.

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Oh, and:

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[dnslater]

I design hospitals for a living and would be a skeptic on those units, assuming your goal is to reduce the risk of COVID. It might work in a small space to reduce dust or allergens though. Do you have an open office, or an enclosed office? In the HVAC world they use CFM (cubic feet per minute) to describe how much air a fan moves and figure how many times a room gets its air changed per hour. Units like these tend not to tell you how much air they move in CFM and have pretty weak fans in order to be quiet and inexpensive. Also, it’s advertised MERV rating of 13 is not generally classified as HEPA so they are misleading you.

I had a conversation with one of my mechanical engineers yesterday about filters and there is a lot of conflicting info on what MERV rating you need for the COVID 19 virus. Best practice at this point seems to be to use UV lights in the HVAC system which we tend to do in Surgery suites, etc..

Again, assuming you are worried about COVID 19, You might be better off sitting something like between you and coworkers, but you might also get a sunburn.
https://www.amazon.com/CCKO-Germicidal- ... =8-46&th=1

[HapaHapa]

We have two Honeywell units that have lasted over a decade. Shaped like a squat barrel on its side, maybe 14”x14”. Filter is washable, but I just knock out the dust and reinstall. They are helpful when friends allergic to cats come to the house (well, not lately).

[aikiman44]

Thanks very much. It is for COVID. I’ll check out that UV light, too. And I’ll check out MERV ratings.

[HapaHapa]

Sorry I didn’t think you specifically meant using an air filter for Covid. Similar to Nick’s comment, I’m going to say that an air filter won’t help unless you are in an enclosed space with very little air exchange (in/out), and no one else is working close to you or touching your stuff. Better to read this than listen to me ramble.
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog ... ronavirus/

[aikiman44]

That’s what I need it for. Ten by 12 office, AC, open window. Minimal aerosol concentration. Patients every 30 minutes. They’re masked; I’m capped, gowned, gloved, masked (cloth) and visored. As if every patient is a surgery patient. All surfaces disinfected appropriately between patients. Etc., etc.
But you never know, so I want to add a filter or UV.

Interesting article, but the comments were more interesting with more relevant info on air filtration.

It turns out that there are too many reasons to avoid these filters for COVID.
As noted above, UV lights are no panacea, either.

Thanks for the info guys.

And to anyone in one of the surging states, stay home and stay safe. And for fuck’s sake, stay masked around anyone.
Right now COVID’s going down here, but it could restart any time. it’s horrible what’s going on.