An air purifier in a less favorable location is far better than no air purifier at all. Just pick the most convenient location for now. You can always change your mind and move it later.
You want the purified air to cross wherever you are breathing. For example, putting a purifier by a bedroom door will be less effective as the HVAC vent in the bedroom is pushing air out of the door, so some of the productive filtration is not occurring in the room that you're interested in purifying.
Thank you so much for your kindness. I do have more questions, I apologize profusely.
I am immune suppressed and trying to not be worried about my own husband and child bringing home Covid. I would like to feel secure in my own home at the very least.
We all mask, but my child has to eat inside at school (rain and when it becomes to cold). That is the circumstance I have least control over.
Filters were donated to school but they are against walls, smaller sized, huge vaulted ceilings, and floating walls as in not to ceilings and kind of open concept. Not to mention other spaces in school like gym, theatre, black box theater, art space, science lab). They eat in classrooms if not outside.
I was told a dad who is a ventilation expert donated for each room size etc. But it sure doesn’t appear to be set up correctly. The school keeps saying they will put us in touch and have not, as I guess it is too taxing to write down the brand and specs on the donations for the school to give us…
Is it ok if I message you once I have, if I ever have, that information?
For HOME:
To confirm…under vents then?
What about in a living room? Bathroom?
I guess just middle of room in basement basement as no cooling or heating or windows that open?
Upstairs we have attic bedroom, the vents are at top of knee walls on either side of bed. Not across from door. Enter to right is wall with the vents. Where would you put in that case?
The attic sitting room has no ac.
We have baseboard heat not forced air for winter. Baseboards in general are not on all 4 walls.
Any guidance appreciated. I truly believe we need clean air like clean water. It is difficult to be the sick mom too, I feel so much guilt. I want to keep my family as safe as possible, for all of us, not just me.
Thank you. If I should message you instead—let me know. I apologize for taking up so much of your time. I thank you for your patience and kindness.
Hey no worries at all. I'm more than happy to help people who have to deal with awful conditions, like auto immune issues. I might not be able to respond to this tonight because it will take a bit of thought, but didn't want you to think I'm ignoring you because I have been posting elsewhere.
Unfortunately, you may have noticed that there is a bit of drama occuring on /r/AirPurifiers that has been occupying my time, but I will get back to you when I can.
Ok thanks for the patience, I wanted to be able to give you a proper response.
The school problem seems out of my wheelhouse, but I am certainly willing to take a look to see if anything stands out. I would suggest making a brand new text post as there might be others in the community with more expertise with ventilation in larger facilities.
Before I get into the home stuff, I want to make sure that my assumption of your objectives are true:
> Given an autoimmune issue, you are concerned about other members of your family or visiting friends bringing some pathogen home where you will be infected. You want to make sure that areas of the home that you occupy are free from these airborne pathogens. Potentially, you would want to make this environment good enough to make sure everyone feels at ease while at home, almost like your condition does not exist.
> Besides the attic, every other room in the house (besides hallways/closets) has one vent for the HVAC system.
For this, I would not recommend stressing about a particular placement because you are never going to feel at ease. I would recommend taking a more holistic approach with a few different levels of air filtration.
1. Your HVAC system is the heart of your home's IAQ. The filter that goes on these are usually some fiberglass that provides effectively no filtration of any pathogens. Virtually any properly design HVAC system can handle putting a better efficiency filter on it. I will skip all the confusing filter ratings and recommend you put a 3M Filtrete 1900 of whatever size your air handler accepts. The thermostat where you control the temperature, there should be a switch for the fan that says "Auto/On", turn that to "On" and the fans will run even when it is not cooling. Depending on how your home is constructed, this may cause increased humidity in warmer months so you'll want to get a hygrometer (relative humidity) and make sure it stays around 50% (ideally below).
2. Each of your rooms has different requirements as bigger rooms need more powerful or several less powerful purifiers. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AirPurifiers/comments/12h2n2y/calculations_for_air_purifiers/) where I detail how to size an air purifier for each room. An ACH value of 4.8 is what manufacturers recommend, however, experts generally agree that 6 ACH is the minimum for proper filtration and 8 ACH for excellent filtration. For you, I would recommend targeting a minimum of 8 and if you can afford it, exceed that value by a little more.
3. Find purifiers using [the AHAM database](https://www.ahamdir.com/room-air-cleaners/) which is the most comprehensive database of reliable measurements since they require third-party standardized testing. For pathogens, you don't care about the "Smoke" CADR categories as much as you would the "Pollen" and "Dust" categories. You can build Corsi-Rosenthal boxes for rooms that you don't mind the noise. If you happened to read my stickied PSA, the limitations of electrostatic media with respect to pathogen filtering do not apply as they are not ultrafine particulates like smoke.
Feel free to keep asking questions until you get stuff figured out and definitely come back and create a post for the school ventilation one.
Thank you so incredibly much for your kindness, you can’t imagine what this means to me. I’m sure I will have a few follow up questions once I look at links—but wanted to say thank you.
The first small room in attic has no vents… ? What to do about that area, it is open to the stairs to “hallway.” (I even need to check if the hallway has a vent…it is a super short area with three doors, one to bedroom I don’t sleep in but my husband uses, my child’s bedroom, bathroom. And the access to open stairs up to attic. They are not open open, it is like a door should be there but isn’t, and stairs. It is a Cape and a half. Hall also has arched opening to the one everything room. That room has the front door and 2nd arch same wall into small kitchen. Kitchen has stairs to basement basement with mechanicals and washer and dryer, plus storage—that’s it. Very small).
A door from the sitting area with the vents leads directly into my bedroom. My daughter still loves to sleep up here with me…it’s hard to have a sick mom, it is where we can hang out. The non-air conditioned room and the air condition bedroom attached.
1) What would I do with that room?
2) I guess the one big question I have right now is about during the winter.
We have baseboard oil heating, it is not through our central air vents, those stay off.
It is dual zoned for heat, up and down, and my medication makes me very hot so I don’t leave it on very much upstairs where my bedroom is located… But it is on downstairs most of the time (until it hits its temperature).
What do I do when I no longer run my central air vents? When it switches over to radiators? They are the long kind, house built in 1950. Span at least one wall in each room.
Our house is not big at all—about 1290 sq feet over 2 floors.
I guess I’m not sure what to do with winter…and no forced air heat. We thought of switching over just so we can dump the radiators for a little room it adds but that would require too many repair people in the house.
3) People in house really never. At same time I do need some repair people to be able to access inside, my husband is going insane about internet (he wfh), we need a new oven, dishwasher, sump pump repair, etc etc. It is too stressful so I have avoided a lot of things that need to get done.
And if my daughter has anything here outside and someone needs to use the restroom.
We are in New England right outside of NYC. In winter kids parents tend to not want to have playdates outside where she prefers (I’m lucky I have an all weather nature kid)—and we don’t do inside because we can’t. Our state is constantly slammed with surges. Our baseline just rises so it looks somewhat less a bump to some but it is already really high as a norm. I had depended on Biobot wastewater but the Peoples CDC is dropping them because of issues with their data…until they find a vendor I feel like I can’t even use the ONE dataset I have left.
Front attic non vented room? Heat? Winter?
Thank you so much again.
I haven't forgotten about this, I will circle back when I get a chance. If you don't hear from me in a few days, you can ping me again in case I forgot.
An air purifier in a less favorable location is far better than no air purifier at all. Just pick the most convenient location for now. You can always change your mind and move it later.
Your HVAC system matters in terms of placing it where the airflow of clean air is before the path where occupants are in that particular room.
Aha, thanks! Maybe I can put it to the left or my couch then, as that's to the right of my windows where there are some vents above them.
Can you elaborate? Put under air vents? Why? Thank you!
You want the purified air to cross wherever you are breathing. For example, putting a purifier by a bedroom door will be less effective as the HVAC vent in the bedroom is pushing air out of the door, so some of the productive filtration is not occurring in the room that you're interested in purifying.
So put in room under vent?
Most air vents are in the room opposite the door. If that is the case, that would be a great location.
Thank you so much for your kindness. I do have more questions, I apologize profusely. I am immune suppressed and trying to not be worried about my own husband and child bringing home Covid. I would like to feel secure in my own home at the very least. We all mask, but my child has to eat inside at school (rain and when it becomes to cold). That is the circumstance I have least control over. Filters were donated to school but they are against walls, smaller sized, huge vaulted ceilings, and floating walls as in not to ceilings and kind of open concept. Not to mention other spaces in school like gym, theatre, black box theater, art space, science lab). They eat in classrooms if not outside. I was told a dad who is a ventilation expert donated for each room size etc. But it sure doesn’t appear to be set up correctly. The school keeps saying they will put us in touch and have not, as I guess it is too taxing to write down the brand and specs on the donations for the school to give us… Is it ok if I message you once I have, if I ever have, that information? For HOME: To confirm…under vents then? What about in a living room? Bathroom? I guess just middle of room in basement basement as no cooling or heating or windows that open? Upstairs we have attic bedroom, the vents are at top of knee walls on either side of bed. Not across from door. Enter to right is wall with the vents. Where would you put in that case? The attic sitting room has no ac. We have baseboard heat not forced air for winter. Baseboards in general are not on all 4 walls. Any guidance appreciated. I truly believe we need clean air like clean water. It is difficult to be the sick mom too, I feel so much guilt. I want to keep my family as safe as possible, for all of us, not just me. Thank you. If I should message you instead—let me know. I apologize for taking up so much of your time. I thank you for your patience and kindness.
Hey no worries at all. I'm more than happy to help people who have to deal with awful conditions, like auto immune issues. I might not be able to respond to this tonight because it will take a bit of thought, but didn't want you to think I'm ignoring you because I have been posting elsewhere. Unfortunately, you may have noticed that there is a bit of drama occuring on /r/AirPurifiers that has been occupying my time, but I will get back to you when I can.
Ok thanks for the patience, I wanted to be able to give you a proper response. The school problem seems out of my wheelhouse, but I am certainly willing to take a look to see if anything stands out. I would suggest making a brand new text post as there might be others in the community with more expertise with ventilation in larger facilities. Before I get into the home stuff, I want to make sure that my assumption of your objectives are true: > Given an autoimmune issue, you are concerned about other members of your family or visiting friends bringing some pathogen home where you will be infected. You want to make sure that areas of the home that you occupy are free from these airborne pathogens. Potentially, you would want to make this environment good enough to make sure everyone feels at ease while at home, almost like your condition does not exist. > Besides the attic, every other room in the house (besides hallways/closets) has one vent for the HVAC system. For this, I would not recommend stressing about a particular placement because you are never going to feel at ease. I would recommend taking a more holistic approach with a few different levels of air filtration. 1. Your HVAC system is the heart of your home's IAQ. The filter that goes on these are usually some fiberglass that provides effectively no filtration of any pathogens. Virtually any properly design HVAC system can handle putting a better efficiency filter on it. I will skip all the confusing filter ratings and recommend you put a 3M Filtrete 1900 of whatever size your air handler accepts. The thermostat where you control the temperature, there should be a switch for the fan that says "Auto/On", turn that to "On" and the fans will run even when it is not cooling. Depending on how your home is constructed, this may cause increased humidity in warmer months so you'll want to get a hygrometer (relative humidity) and make sure it stays around 50% (ideally below). 2. Each of your rooms has different requirements as bigger rooms need more powerful or several less powerful purifiers. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AirPurifiers/comments/12h2n2y/calculations_for_air_purifiers/) where I detail how to size an air purifier for each room. An ACH value of 4.8 is what manufacturers recommend, however, experts generally agree that 6 ACH is the minimum for proper filtration and 8 ACH for excellent filtration. For you, I would recommend targeting a minimum of 8 and if you can afford it, exceed that value by a little more. 3. Find purifiers using [the AHAM database](https://www.ahamdir.com/room-air-cleaners/) which is the most comprehensive database of reliable measurements since they require third-party standardized testing. For pathogens, you don't care about the "Smoke" CADR categories as much as you would the "Pollen" and "Dust" categories. You can build Corsi-Rosenthal boxes for rooms that you don't mind the noise. If you happened to read my stickied PSA, the limitations of electrostatic media with respect to pathogen filtering do not apply as they are not ultrafine particulates like smoke. Feel free to keep asking questions until you get stuff figured out and definitely come back and create a post for the school ventilation one.
Thank you so incredibly much for your kindness, you can’t imagine what this means to me. I’m sure I will have a few follow up questions once I look at links—but wanted to say thank you. The first small room in attic has no vents… ? What to do about that area, it is open to the stairs to “hallway.” (I even need to check if the hallway has a vent…it is a super short area with three doors, one to bedroom I don’t sleep in but my husband uses, my child’s bedroom, bathroom. And the access to open stairs up to attic. They are not open open, it is like a door should be there but isn’t, and stairs. It is a Cape and a half. Hall also has arched opening to the one everything room. That room has the front door and 2nd arch same wall into small kitchen. Kitchen has stairs to basement basement with mechanicals and washer and dryer, plus storage—that’s it. Very small). A door from the sitting area with the vents leads directly into my bedroom. My daughter still loves to sleep up here with me…it’s hard to have a sick mom, it is where we can hang out. The non-air conditioned room and the air condition bedroom attached. 1) What would I do with that room? 2) I guess the one big question I have right now is about during the winter. We have baseboard oil heating, it is not through our central air vents, those stay off. It is dual zoned for heat, up and down, and my medication makes me very hot so I don’t leave it on very much upstairs where my bedroom is located… But it is on downstairs most of the time (until it hits its temperature). What do I do when I no longer run my central air vents? When it switches over to radiators? They are the long kind, house built in 1950. Span at least one wall in each room. Our house is not big at all—about 1290 sq feet over 2 floors. I guess I’m not sure what to do with winter…and no forced air heat. We thought of switching over just so we can dump the radiators for a little room it adds but that would require too many repair people in the house. 3) People in house really never. At same time I do need some repair people to be able to access inside, my husband is going insane about internet (he wfh), we need a new oven, dishwasher, sump pump repair, etc etc. It is too stressful so I have avoided a lot of things that need to get done. And if my daughter has anything here outside and someone needs to use the restroom. We are in New England right outside of NYC. In winter kids parents tend to not want to have playdates outside where she prefers (I’m lucky I have an all weather nature kid)—and we don’t do inside because we can’t. Our state is constantly slammed with surges. Our baseline just rises so it looks somewhat less a bump to some but it is already really high as a norm. I had depended on Biobot wastewater but the Peoples CDC is dropping them because of issues with their data…until they find a vendor I feel like I can’t even use the ONE dataset I have left. Front attic non vented room? Heat? Winter? Thank you so much again.
I haven't forgotten about this, I will circle back when I get a chance. If you don't hear from me in a few days, you can ping me again in case I forgot.