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I was blown away years ago, visiting the Anchor brewery in San Francisco. They approximated traditional steam beer in an enormous shallow pool. To improve consi
by Syzygies 4y ago
I was blown away years ago, visiting the Anchor brewery in San Francisco. They approximated traditional steam beer in an enormous shallow pool. To improve consistency the whole room was at positive pressure, using state-of-the-art hospital air filtering.
Aside from the smell of beer, it was like stepping out into the Swiss Alps. I've never understood why rich people will spend $40K on audiophile equipment yet put up with crappy phones; I did a BBC interview remote in their NY studio using a $10K mic and the difference was staggering. Here, I swore if I ever got rich I'd want good indoor air.
It turns out I can afford to redo my house in California with a heat exchanger. I'm certain the hardest part will be finding a contractor who will exceed standards. Standards are why I have 1/2" pipes under my house. I want the bleeding edge of what's possible in my lifetime.
- altairprime 4y agoI was able to positive pressurize my apartment with an IQair during the ‘17-20 wildfires; it’s really worth it if you can figure out the intricacies and get it done.
- Maxburn 4y agoEvery single building is supposed to be positive with conditioned air at all times. Any building that's negative pulls in unconditioned air through all the cracks. Where I live it's very humid (think Houston TX) and if you pull that air in for a long time you end up with black mold inside the walls.
- altairprime 4y agoMust be nice. My building's only "intake" was in my hallway ceiling, pulling in air from the farthest point from all windows.
- Maxburn 4y agoMight be by design. Plenty of buildings have a dedicated OA unit dumping into common areas and it gets pushed out to the private areas and individual rooms. Then gets pulled out via exhaust fans in rest rooms and other places.
- Maxburn 4y agoThere is a massive difference in residential HVAC techs and commercial HVAC work. I had three bids from different contractors in my house and I specifically called out the whistling return vent, showed them how it sucks the filter in. The filter grill was clearly under sized for the CFM the AHU was pulling. Not one of them thought that was anything to be concerned about. None of them knew the first thing about manual D and calculating CFM for ductwork. I can only recommend you do the homework and tell them exactly what you want installed. ie; be your own specification engineer. Anyone that's actually good at this sort of work goes commercial exclusively, that's where the money is.
- Syzygies 4y agoThanks! When we put in solar twenty years ago they kept patching me through to engineers they normally protect from customers, because I'd learned more than any customer-facing staff. You're saying, same drill here.