You can improve indoor air quality and reduce the risk of getting sick from respiratory viruses by optimizing ventilation in indoor spaces, in homes and where-ever you are:
- Having as many activities outdoors as possible, especially while eating, drinking, singing, shouting and exercising.
- In indoor spaces by:
- keeping windows and doors open, ideally on multiple sides for cross-ventilation.
- running fans to increase air flow at windows and doors, pointing away from the group.
- running HVAC systems with MERV 13+ filters to clean the air.
- running HEPA air purifiers at the maximum rate tolerable starting at least an hour before gathering, during the gathering and at least an hour after to clean the air. Here’s a DIY HEPA air filter design for a lower cost ($60-80) option.
- aiming for at least 5 air changes an hour.
- See more CDC indoor ventilation guidance here.
- If the outdoor air quality or weather is poor and you can’t keep windows and doors open, run the HVAC system and/or air purifiers at the highest settings tolerable.
- Check out these ventilation tools to see how virus particle levels change when you use different interventions, such as opening windows and using air filters or HVAC systems.
