Another solution I have thought about is simple increasing the amount of fresh air brought into an indoor space. Laboratories, wood-working shops and other spaces that can produce unhealthy air have extremely high Air Change per Hour (ACH)[1] requirements. It's wasteful[2] since you also have to condition that air, but it seems like a simple solution to ensuring we dilute air swarming with potential virus.
Yes, and another big saver would be certain types of heat recovery system[1] that will allow you to recover the heat added to the supply air from the exhaust air without mixing (and thereby polluting) the air streams.
> During January 26–February 10, 2020, an outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus disease in an air-conditioned restaurant in Guangzhou, China, involved 3 family clusters. The airflow direction was consistent with droplet transmission. To prevent the spread of the virus in restaurants, we recommend increasing the distance between tables and improving ventilation.
The virus didn't come through the ac system in that case. The AC was just blowing air from the infected person to others. This solution would have been useless.
That's a difficult thing to test directly, so I think most people reason it out. In this case, you think about the virus, its interaction with air particles, and the interaction with a typical AC system with and without (unheated) filtration. I think the issue with ordinary filtration is that the virus is very small and can pass through most filters; by heating it the virus only needs to collide with the hot filter once, or (I think) get knocked around by fast air molecules to become unviable (is "killed" the right term for a virus that may not be "alive"?)
Long story short, I think this invention looks great and I for one would use one, especially in cold climates where I already want to heat up the air.
> Long story short, I think this invention looks great and I for one would use one, especially in cold climates where I already want to heat up the air.
If it also works on influenza, it would be a fantastic way to heat buildings during flu season, and the investment could pay for itself even after the current COVID pandemic.
