Thoughts on UV light system in HVAC ?

[John K Jordan]

Getting off the UV question, how many hvac systems are being installed?

How many people install HVAC in their home shop?
I put a Trane heat pump in my shop, one zone. It was one of the best things I've ever done. I installed it myself at a huge cost savings. The shop (and little office) is comfortable year around. I keep the thermostat at 80 in the summer and 68 in the winter. It is wonderful at controlling humidity.

JKJ

[Mike Soaper]

Some years ago I made an ozone generator for a short term research project. The UV bulb and power supply were bought and I was asked to fab a box, about 16x16x12?, and assemble the parts . The box was made from aluminum sheeting that I already had, and some spare rubber? gasketing was used to seal the panels.

I don't recall the specks on the bulb but in relatively light use the box's interior aluminum was severely corroded and the gasketing was brittle and cracking.

[Scott Winners]

I am accustomed to seeing one UV light with a lens maybe 8x8 inches on the wall somewhere in every 3000-5000 square feet of operating rooms and hallways and so on. It has been a long time, I will have to check with one of colleagues who is current. Back in the day the single UV light on the wall was a handy backstop against, IIRC, only one genus of bacteria. But if that genus was floating around it would die.

I don't remember who was in the White House last time I worked regular in an operating room, but it was geologic time given medical technology advances. I will check this week time permitting.

[Chris Padilla]

UV sterilizers are used in pools. I don't know much about their effectiveness other than they are available. I wonder if they work better in water versus air?

[Dave Fritz]

We suffer from allergies and live in the country so we get a lot of dust and pollen in the air. We don't have natural gas, rather burn propane after many years of fuel oil. I bought an air quality monitor https://www.elitechustore.com/collec...-quality-meter It was an eye opener as air quality went all over the place, mostly above safe limits. We added an hot air exchange which brought in outside air and removed air from the house. That did a lot to improve air quality however Total Volatile Organic Compounds continued to be high. We switched HVAC service to a local company that does heating, cooling, plumbing and electrical so we could have a one stop shop. They sell a UV air cleaner which we had installed and have purchased a yearly service contract so they'll change out the filter. Once that was in the TVOC's dropped into safe levels. I should add all we had was a one inch filter on the old furnace and adding anything else would have required redoing duct work anyway. Then you have to deal with fan capacity. There is a huge difference among the products available. Ours wasn't that bad compared to others and the local company has a warranty on it so we're pretty comfortable with it.

[Alan Rutherford]

Some years ago I made an ozone generator for a short term research project. The UV bulb and power supply were bought and I was asked to fab a box, about 16x16x12?, and assemble the parts . The box was made from aluminum sheeting that I already had, and some spare rubber? gasketing was used to seal the panels.

I don't recall the specks on the bulb but in relatively light use the box's interior aluminum was severely corroded and the gasketing was brittle and cracking.

Several years ago I took a 40-hour "Home Environmentalist" course run by the local branch of the American Lung Association. Lots of good information backed up by real data and people who knew what they were talking about. They were very negative about the ozone-generator type of air purifier that you still see advertised on television. Not good for your lungs.

[Stan Calow]

The real question is if you really need one.

[Kev Williams]

UV sterilizers are used in pools. I don't know much about their effectiveness other than they are available. I wonder if they work better in water versus air?

Don't know about water vs air but I know UV works in water. We had a hot tub for 14 years without any UV help, and for the past 7 years we've owned a tub that came with a UV generation setup, and the UV equipped tub requires around 40% less sodium-dichlor chlorine to keep the chemical levels in spec than the old tub did.

[Ed Fang]

we have them in our hvac units. not sure what they have done to help over the last decade. .