Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems have never been the hottest conference or cocktail hour topic. “I’ve never gotten more than 15 people in a room that wanted to talk about ventilation,” says Theresa Pistochini, the engineering manager at the Western Cooling Efficiency Center at the University of California, Davis. But during a pandemic, her webinars draw hundreds of viewers.
The sudden ventilation fascination comes from businesses and schools trying to operate while keeping indoor air as virus-free as possible. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, or ASHRAE, weighed in on this issue by saying that air filtration systems can reduce how much of the coronavirus is indoors. You can browse a range of new guides to the best and worst air purifiers on the market. But when it comes to a new filter actually catching viral particles, a lot more needs to happen besides swapping a dirty screen for a clean one.
