Cohousing-L Mailing List: Air Quality

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Nov 21, 2013, at 11:29 AM, Ann Zabaldo <zabaldo [at] earthlink.net> wrote:

> I can't speak to the standard but the filters were changed because the new 
> filters are washable and therefore do not contribute to the trash stream.  
> Whether 12, 15 or 7 is the correct number I don't know.  And whether it's 
> more important to have washable filters or filters that do a better job of 
> keeping out dust etc. for those w/ allergies ... if this is a problem we need 
> to revisit this decision. 

I would love to hear from anyone else who has done research on this. These 
filters are now all the rage. They were introduced years ago but apparently now 
have new materials.

All the research I've done on this says they are not better and none of our 
HVAC people, old and new companies, either use them or recommend them. The 
research is minimal on the ones that do not have electric power creating the 
electrostatic charge. Without electricity the flow of air is supposed to create 
the charge and attract and hold particles on the mesh. When, there is no 
charge, dust particles go into the system and back into the air. Since the 
filters have larger holes than even the bottom of the line blue filters this 
can be a problem when they are not clean.

The action is like running a plastic comb through your hair to create an 
electric charge and watching the comb pick up pepper in a mixture of salt and 
pepper. It doesn't work with a dirty comb.

I don't know how you test the charge on a filter.

Even the ones with electricity creating the charge only work when when very, 
very clean and they have to be cleaned often. I had one of the electric powered 
electrostatic cleaners in my unit. I had to clean it once a week because it 
would make a beeping noise and turn off. And they are not easy to clean. I 
would put the filter back and it would turn off again until I got it really 
clean. I finally threw it out.

Ours are cleaned once a month and it probably isn't enough -- if they work at 
all. There is no way to really tell if they are working until the service 
person comes and complains about the coils. When I asked the person told me we 
always clean the coils anyway. But the coils also don't work efficiently when 
they are dusty so what happens in between? This service company's people were 
never very precise about anything. 

We now have a new service company that doesn't recommend them either.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org