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Viruses, Bacteria and Fungus #LIVE

By Bryan Orr

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In this live podcast episode, we discuss viruses, bacteria, and fungi. We also explain how they interact with HVAC equipment, their effects on indoor air quality, and how businesses can protect their customers and employees.

Since we work with the public, we can minimize the risk of viral transmission by keeping our distance between others and avoid handshakes and other forms of contact. However, we also have to respect the feelings of the customers we’re serving.

Many people confuse viruses, bacteria, and fungi (mold). All particles are small and would typically pass right through a MERV-8 filter; you typically need MERV-11 or better to catch all three. While our equipment can harbor those particles, the equipment can’t create them. While bacteria and fungi can propagate on their own, viruses need a host to propagate. Viruses can go airborne, but they only grow and propagate inside our bodies. So, we don’t need to worry about minimizing growth on surfaces or inside HVAC equipment.

We make it harder for bacteria, fungi, and viruses to survive by keeping the relative humidity between 30% and 55%. That is part of the reason why certain viruses become prominent seasonally, though our own immune systems are also a factor.

Probiotic cleaners also exist to attack biofilm on surfaces. To achieve that goal, probiotic cleaners promote good bacterial growth to fight the bad growth we want to eliminate. We may expect probiotic technologies to improve even more in the future. However, those won’t affect viruses strongly because viruses don’t GROW in equipment.

We also discuss: