As we spend more time indoors, the quality of our indoor air becomes increasingly important. The air inside our homes can contain pollutants such as dust, pet dander, mold spores, and even chemicals from cleaning products. This can be especially concerning for people with allergies, asthma, or other respiratory conditions. Indoor air filtration can help improve the quality of the air we breathe, and in this guide, we will explore the different types of air filters and how to choose the right one for your home.

What are the financial impact of illnesses such as colds, flu, and COVID-19 on businesses and the economy. The annual cost of influenza in the US is estimated to be between $71 and $167 billion, with sick employees costing businesses up to $225 billion each year in lost productivity. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the US economy, with estimates ranging from $6.9 trillion to $16.6 trillion in costs. Learn how businesses can reduce the financial impact of sickness on their operations, including encouraging sick employees to stay home, offering flexible work arrangements, providing paid sick leave, and maintaining a healthy workplace. Read on to discover how to minimize the impact of sickness on your business and bottom line.

The Effects of CO2 on Indoor Air Quality High levels of CO2 in indoor spaces can have several negative effects on air quality. They include: Reduced Oxygen Concentration: As CO2 concentrations increase, the amount of oxygen in the air decreases. This can result in headaches, dizziness, and fatigue, and can affect cognitive abilities. Increased Humidity: CO2 is known to increase relative humidity levels in indoor spaces, which can promote the growth of mold and other allergens. Poor Air Quality: CO2 is known to affect the quality of indoor air by reacting with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other pollutants, leading to increased levels of indoor air pollution.

With the advancements in technology in machine learning and artificial intelligence, our buildings are becoming smarter and able to start reacting to scenarios before they happen. With today’s technology, we are proactive in our approach to indoor air quality by installing sensors within a space and measuring a building’s IAQ parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, Volatile Organic Compounds, and particulate levels to determine how clean a building’s IAQ is. This approach is very reactive as we measure evaluate and then react by turning HVAC equipment on or off as determined by our IAQ sensors.

With the next wave of COVID-19 around the corner and coinciding with the flu season, it’s apparent that the transmission of the airborne disease is a bigger problem during the fall, winter, and spring seasons. One big factor which causes this is the fact that people spend more time inside during these seasons than in the summer.

UVC lights have been a proven technology in reducing the spread of airborne diseases for a very long time. But as with many other technologies, the benefits of a reduction in the spread of airborne diseases come with a cost such as the production of harmful UVC rays and Ozone. In order to reduce these effects, the proper design, selection, installation, and testing of these systems need to be carefully considered.

Over the past few years, we have seen a lot of companies create dashboards to display indoor air conditions such as Relative Humidity, Particulate, Volatile Organic Compounds, and Carbon Dioxide. These are all great indicators and if each item is maintained within a certain range a building’s air quality can be quantified and displayed.

Every summer we are experiencing a drop in COVID-19 cases and then in the fall, the cases start to rise and typically peak through the fall, winter, and spring months. Each of which is referred to as a wave. So with the current drop in cases is COVID-19 over or are we just experiencing a summer slowdown. To fully understand this, we need to look at each factor associated with the disease, reducing the probability of transmission between people.

A typical Filtration system in an air handling unit has a MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Values) of 8 which is effective in filtering out typical particles found in a commercial building's indoor air environment. But now with the transmission of airborne viruses such as COVID-19 in buildings we need to look at all our HVAC systems and modify them as much as possible to reduce possible transmission between occupants in a space.