Assessing the use of portable air cleaners for reducing exposure to airborne diseases in a conference room with thermal stratification

Castellini, John E.; Faulkner, Cary A.; Lorenzetti, David M.; Sohn, Michael D.

doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108441

Cited by 25 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 40 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…They can also be used to evaluate advanced control strategies to improve IAQ, such as occupant-based strategies. We can also study tradeoffs among energy, costs, and CO 2 emissions for other indoor virus mitigation strategies, such as use of portable air cleaners, which have been shown to be effective at reducing virus concentrations within rooms [ 45 ]. Finally, this study focuses on applying mitigation strategies to an existing building, since redesigning an HVAC system is costly.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tradeoffs among indoor air quality, financial costs, and CO2 emissions for HVAC operation strategies to mitigate indoor virus in U.S. office buildings

Faulkner

Castellini

Lou

et al. 2022

Building and Environment

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tradeoffs among indoor air quality, financial costs, and CO2 emissions for HVAC operation strategies to mitigate indoor virus in U.S. office buildings

Faulkner

Castellini

Lou

et al. 2022

Building and Environment

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Differences in room geometry, temperature, or positioning of the HEPA units will impact the results [ 20 ]. However, the motion of occupants [ 21 ] characteristic of busy settings such as those investigated in this work adds mixing to the room air leading to a condition closer to well-mixed aerosols [ 22 ]. Specialist advice should be taken when positioning such standalone units.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The cost-effectiveness of standalone HEPA filtration units for the prevention of airborne SARS CoV-2 transmission

Zafarí

Oliveira

Gkantonas

et al. 2022

Cost Eff Resour Alloc

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective Airborne infection from aerosolized SARS-CoV-2 poses an economic challenge for businesses without existing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. The Environmental Protection Agency notes that standalone units may be used in areas without existing HVAC systems, but the cost and effectiveness of standalone units has not been evaluated. Study design Cost-effectiveness analysis with Monte Carlo simulation and aerosol transmission modeling. Methods We built a probabilistic decision-analytic model in a Monte Carlo simulation that examines aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in an indoor space. As a base case study, we built a model that simulated a poorly ventilated indoor 1000 square foot restaurant and the range of Covid-19 prevalence of actively infectious cases (best-case: 0.1%, base-case: 2%, and worst-case: 3%) and vaccination rates (best-case: 90%, base-case: 70%, and worst-case: 0%) in New York City. We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of improving ventilation rate to 12 air changes per hour (ACH), the equivalent of hospital-grade filtration systems used in emergency departments. We also provide a customizable online tool that allows the user to change model parameters. Results All 3 scenarios resulted in a net cost-savings and infections averted. For the base-case scenario, improving ventilation to 12 ACH was associated with 54 [95% Credible Interval (CrI): 29–86] aerosol infections averted over 1 year, producing an estimated cost savings of $152,701 (95% CrI: $80,663, $249,501) and 1.35 (95% CrI: 0.72, 2.24) quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained. Conclusions It is cost-effective to improve indoor ventilation in small businesses in older buildings that lack HVAC systems during the pandemic.

show abstract

“…The use of air purifiers can significantly reduce the contact between aerosols and droplets [46] , reduce aerosol exposure by 31% -66%. With the increase of air flow, the exposure and dependence on source location will be reduced [47] , and effectively dilute virus carrying aerosols [48] . However, current purification products mainly use HEPA lter screens to intercept the virus and have a short service life and inconvenient replacement.…”

Section: Epidemic Prevention Products For Buildingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Standards and Problems for Epidemic Prevention in Buildings: A Systemic Review

Gong

Lei

Bu³

et al. 2022

Jounarl of Building Design and Environment

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The complexity of the building environment directly affects the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 inside the building. Therefore, the paper systematically reviewed the effective and feasible measures, designs and relevant epidemic prevention guidelines formed in the eld of epidemic prevention during the period of COVID-19, as well as the excellent research and projects around the world. The study found that most of the people infected with COVID-19 were infected indoors, but the current building design was not included in the scope of epidemic prevention design, not effectively resist the spread of infectious diseases, and there is no standard guideline for epidemic prevention building design so far. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate building epidemic prevention standards, and by considering the epidemic prevention design in the architectural planning and design stage, the use of building epidemic prevention products, healthy wind environment design, etc. to establish a healthy building environment can effectively reduce the risk of epidemic transmission inside the building. However, due to insufficient epidemiological data and pathological research on the risk of epidemic transmission among residents, further research on the standards for epidemic prevention and quantitative risk assessment methods of building is limited.

show abstract

Assessing the use of portable air cleaners for reducing exposure to airborne diseases in a conference room with thermal stratification

Cited by 25 publications

References 40 publications

Tradeoffs among indoor air quality, financial costs, and CO2 emissions for HVAC operation strategies to mitigate indoor virus in U.S. office buildings

Tradeoffs among indoor air quality, financial costs, and CO2 emissions for HVAC operation strategies to mitigate indoor virus in U.S. office buildings

The cost-effectiveness of standalone HEPA filtration units for the prevention of airborne SARS CoV-2 transmission

Standards and Problems for Epidemic Prevention in Buildings: A Systemic Review

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About