Maintaining your heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system may help prevent the spread of airborne diseases like the coronavirus
From day one of this global pandemic medical professionals have asked you to wash your hands, practice social distancing, disinfect your surfaces, and wear a face masks. What have you been told about changing your air filters or circulating your indoor air? Recent studies on COVID-19 show that maintaining your heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system may help prevent the spread of airborne diseases like the coronavirus.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this virus is spreading more efficiently than influenza and other viruses. COVID-19 is spread “through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks.” These droplets can be inhaled into the lungs through a persons nose or mouth. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reported that the coronavirus can remain “stable for several hours to days in aerosols and on surfaces.”
For the sake of this article, take a moment to consider your current living and working facilities. Prior to the coronavirus, the average person in the United States spent 90% of their day indoors. Most of us are not wearing face masks at home and many of us are stuck working from our home offices. We are spending more time in our homes than usual. Now, think about the last time you changed your air filter.
If you cannot think of the last time you changed your air filter, it probably looks a lot like the filter on the right:
Buildup on your filters can cause your system to work harder, potentially damaging and leading to unexpected repairs or premature replacement. It also can prevent air from flowing efficiently, which allows viruses like COVID-19 to survive on surfaces, posing as a potential risk to you and your loved ones. Poor air flow and air quality can have immediate affects that can cause or irritate health conditions like allergies, asthma, viruses, or worse. In the long term, the US Environmental Protection Agency states that poor air quality can cause “respiratory diseases, heart disease and cancer, can be severely debilitating or fatal. It is prudent to try to improve the indoor air quality in your home even if symptoms are not noticeable.”
The American Society of heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) urges people to “continue to run [HVAC] systems during this time to help control the spread of the virus.” They believe ventilation and filtration by HVAC systems can reduce the airborne concentration and transmission of the coronavirus. Global Plasma Solutions, the company that makes the iWave products we sell and install, announced that their product demonstrated a 99.4% reduction rate on a SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) surface strain within 30 minutes.
Maintaining your HVAC system is likely overlooked or overdue, but changing your filters regularly or installing an air scrubber should be a priority for your household and workplace.
This is our very long-winded way of saying: we want to make sure you are staying healthy during this pandemic. Give us a call so we can give your system a tune-up. Our technicians can test, adjust, and balance your systems to make sure you are achieving optimal airflows. If you are looking for a simpler approach, text or call us about ordering some replacement filters or air scrubbers.
