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I support more research but anecdotally HEPA air filters changed my life. I used to get pretty bad respiratory infections every winter but after getting these

I support more research but anecdotally HEPA air filters changed my life. I used to get pretty bad respiratory infections every winter but after getting these that went away. I’m talking the simple kind with basic charcoal prefilter and fiber HEPA filter which are about $150 at most home stores or big box stores. Never used any ionization or ozone. The interesting bit is the newer ones even measure air particulates and have a variable speed option where they will speed up when they detect high pollution… Which turns out is mostly from me cooking.

gerdesj 1y ago
Well you will need a particulate detector to determine the problem and then that will inform your solution.
vosper 1y ago
Your HEPA filters must be real ones. HEPA is just an acronym anyone can slap on anything, there's no accreditation. Recent testing on the Vacuum Wars channel showed big differences between filters from the vacuum manufacturer and off-brand "HEPA" filters. Probably the same applies everywhere. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAIYRykQkMk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAIYRykQkMk
- throw0101c 1y ago
  > HEPA is just an acronym anyone can slap on anything, there's no accreditation. There are standards: > Filters meeting the HEPA standard must satisfy certain levels of efficiency. Common standards require that a HEPA air filter must remove—from the air that passes through—at least 99.95% (ISO, European Standard)[4][5] or 99.97% (ASME, U.S. DOE)[6][7] of particles whose diameter is equal to 0.3 μm, with the filtration efficiency increasing for particle diameters both less than and greater than 0.3 μm.[8] * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HEPA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HEPA * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HEPA#Specifications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HEPA#Specifications
- sirtaj 1y ago
  Here in India you can usually tell them apart by whether they are advertised as HEPA vs "HEPA-type".
- schiffern 1y ago
  >Your HEPA filters must be real ones. "You need HEPA" is just marketing. What you really need is CADR (Clean Air Delivery Rate) and third-party testing. HEPA H13 only means the filter was tested to 99.97% particle efficiency at the most difficult particle size. There's nothing magical about this number. In reality air filters can often clean better with an E11 or E12 filter (tested to 95% and 99.5% respectively), because these filters allow much greater airflow from the same fan.[0] Remember, the clean air is immediately mixing with the dirty room air. If you get twice the airflow while "only" letting 5% of particles through, that's a good tradeoff. CADR (tested by AHAM, not just the manufacturer's claim!) is what really matters, not HEPA vs non-HEPA. [0] https://x.com/Engineer_Wong/status/1899144721710408038 https://x.com/Engineer_Wong/status/1899144721710408038
Gigachad 1y ago
I think the next big thing is going to be fixing cooking air pollution. Now that smoking has been in freefall it's becoming increasingly clear that cooking is the next big issue for lung cancers. Especially anything smoky or on a gas stove. It wouldn't be terribly impractical to put a much higher power extraction fan and some side walls to create a kind of fume hood like you'd get in a lab.
- leguminous 1y ago
  The EPA estimates that radon[1] is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking. I have a RadonEye monitor in the basement. They aren't that expensive and it's nice to have the piece of mind. [1] https://www.epa.gov/radon/health-risk-radon https://www.epa.gov/radon/health-risk-radon
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    What lead you to trust RadonEye?
    - Terr_ 1y ago
      I wonder how one could validate a radon detector. Can one buy a phial known air/radon concentration online without ending up on some spooky list? Naturally, you would have to account what changes in the sample during shipping, due to the short half-life...
      - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
        > how one could validate a radon detector Get a professional measurement and compare. This Reddit thread gave me pause [1]. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/radon/comments/ptz8tt/professional_test_vs_radon_eye_vastly_different/ https://www.reddit.com/r/radon/comments/ptz8tt/professional_...
    - vintermann 1y ago
      A radon sensor is just an alpha radiation detector. There's little reason to distrust companies making them. You don't even really need very good calibration, you just want to know if radon levels exceed some "you should take action" treshold. Real-time radon detection is really a bit overkill.
conception 1y ago
For those interested the cheap option is box fan, something like this or duct tape https://a.co/d/3BEXNGp https://a.co/d/3BEXNGp and a hepa filter. Works great and costs about 50 bucks.

gerdesj 1y ago

Well you will need a particulate detector to determine the problem and then that will inform your solution.

vosper 1y ago

Your HEPA filters must be real ones. HEPA is just an acronym anyone can slap on anything, there's no accreditation. Recent testing on the Vacuum Wars channel showed big differences between filters from the vacuum manufacturer and off-brand "HEPA" filters. Probably the same applies everywhere. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAIYRykQkMk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAIYRykQkMk

throw0101c 1y ago
> HEPA is just an acronym anyone can slap on anything, there's no accreditation. There are standards: > Filters meeting the HEPA standard must satisfy certain levels of efficiency. Common standards require that a HEPA air filter must remove—from the air that passes through—at least 99.95% (ISO, European Standard)[4][5] or 99.97% (ASME, U.S. DOE)[6][7] of particles whose diameter is equal to 0.3 μm, with the filtration efficiency increasing for particle diameters both less than and greater than 0.3 μm.[8] * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HEPA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HEPA * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HEPA#Specifications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HEPA#Specifications
sirtaj 1y ago
Here in India you can usually tell them apart by whether they are advertised as HEPA vs "HEPA-type".
schiffern 1y ago
>Your HEPA filters must be real ones. "You need HEPA" is just marketing. What you really need is CADR (Clean Air Delivery Rate) and third-party testing. HEPA H13 only means the filter was tested to 99.97% particle efficiency at the most difficult particle size. There's nothing magical about this number. In reality air filters can often clean better with an E11 or E12 filter (tested to 95% and 99.5% respectively), because these filters allow much greater airflow from the same fan.[0] Remember, the clean air is immediately mixing with the dirty room air. If you get twice the airflow while "only" letting 5% of particles through, that's a good tradeoff. CADR (tested by AHAM, not just the manufacturer's claim!) is what really matters, not HEPA vs non-HEPA. [0] https://x.com/Engineer_Wong/status/1899144721710408038 https://x.com/Engineer_Wong/status/1899144721710408038

Gigachad 1y ago

I think the next big thing is going to be fixing cooking air pollution. Now that smoking has been in freefall it's becoming increasingly clear that cooking is the next big issue for lung cancers. Especially anything smoky or on a gas stove. It wouldn't be terribly impractical to put a much higher power extraction fan and some side walls to create a kind of fume hood like you'd get in a lab.

leguminous 1y ago
The EPA estimates that radon[1] is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking. I have a RadonEye monitor in the basement. They aren't that expensive and it's nice to have the piece of mind. [1] https://www.epa.gov/radon/health-risk-radon https://www.epa.gov/radon/health-risk-radon
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  What lead you to trust RadonEye?
  - Terr_ 1y ago
    I wonder how one could validate a radon detector. Can one buy a phial known air/radon concentration online without ending up on some spooky list? Naturally, you would have to account what changes in the sample during shipping, due to the short half-life...
    - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
      > how one could validate a radon detector Get a professional measurement and compare. This Reddit thread gave me pause [1]. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/radon/comments/ptz8tt/professional_test_vs_radon_eye_vastly_different/ https://www.reddit.com/r/radon/comments/ptz8tt/professional_...
  - vintermann 1y ago
    A radon sensor is just an alpha radiation detector. There's little reason to distrust companies making them. You don't even really need very good calibration, you just want to know if radon levels exceed some "you should take action" treshold. Real-time radon detection is really a bit overkill.

conception 1y ago

For those interested the cheap option is box fan, something like this or duct tape https://a.co/d/3BEXNGp https://a.co/d/3BEXNGp and a hepa filter. Works great and costs about 50 bucks.