Commercial and Industrial Air Filters for COVID
Yes, Commercial and Industrial Air Filters can help prevent COVID.
While COVID itself is too small to filter without HEPA, the vapor droplets upon which it hitches a ride are mostly ≥3 microns. These particles, using commercial or industrial air filters ≥MERV 13 CAN be filtered, as recommended by ASHRAE, when the HVAC system is designed to handle the increased resistance. https://www.ashrae.org/technical-resources/filtration-disinfection#mechanical
If COVID is too small, how does this work?
MERV 13 air filters work on COVID because COVID can’t fly. It’s a hitchhiker. It needs to catch a ride to be airborne. Most often it rides on the water vapor we all exhale when talking, singing, sneezing, coughing, or just plain breathing. These vapor particles mostly fall to the floor in a few feet, but others can drift for hours. These hitchhikers drift into the ventilation, the droplets get filtered, the virus has no more ride. To back this up, the CDC says, “While airflows within a particular space may help spread disease among people in that space, there is no definitive evidence to date that viable virus has been transmitted through an HVAC system to result in disease transmission to people in other spaces served by the same system.” https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/ventilation.html#:~:text=While%20airflows%20within%20a%20particular,by%20the%20same%20system
That’s governmentese for “filtration works.”
Based on these and other readings, we would argue that Merv 13, with a 90% efficiency for particles in the 3 to 20 micron range, is a reasonable part in defending against COVID in commercial and industrial settings, for anyone and everyone whose HVAC system is designed for it.
BUT — “designed for it” is critical.
Your HVAC system must be designed for a high-number Merv. Otherwise you may as well be blocking your air-intake with cardboard. You won’t stop the Covid hitchhikers if your entire system breaks down due to motor-breaking pressure. Check your manual. Or give us a call.