Question about industrial attic fan and Covid-19.

Becky1951

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Tennessee
Question about industrial attic fan and Covid-19.

If a building such as a church installed one that was vented down through the ceiling, would it suck up the air enough to pull the breath people exhale?
There by removing any virus droplets?
 

Question about industrial attic fan and Covid-19.

If a building such as a church installed one that was vented down through the ceiling, would it suck up the air enough to pull the breath people exhale?
There by removing any virus droplets?
It might remove light gases over time, but it's not going to lift water droplets. Exhaled gases are gonna linger and slowly lift, they're not gonna be whisked away. My ex-mother in law had a whole-house ceiling fanin a small house with 8' ceilings. It was a decent breeze, but not on the level you are looking for.

I go to a Methodist church. The governing body has issued a 60 page "This is how we manage going forward" edict. Churches are hardest hit when we need them the most. We sit close together and are the most at-risk demographic. It stinks.
 

Here is a link to a letter from our Bishop briefly outlining "going forward" plans. I'm not certain the entire document is available outside of their work groups.

Here is a link to a letter from the Pioneer Workshops team. The UMC in my district is putting together some "Pioneer Churches" before everyone else is given the green light.

Maybe this will help as your congregation also struggles with this.
 
No.

I mean it might remove some but not enough to make the environment safe to gather in. Too many people over too long a time frame.

Safer to hold services outside where there is free air flow.
 
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Question about industrial attic fan and Covid-19.

If a building such as a church installed one that was vented down through the ceiling, would it suck up the air enough to pull the breath people exhale?
There by removing any virus droplets?
Yes, it would remove all the virus droplets.
And, if you break a cookie into pieces, the calories float away into the atmosphere.

🤣
 
Thanks for your thoughts on this. I had hoped it could be possible. Just something I was thinking of as a way to remove the virus in buildings where others congregate.
 
IMO the basics like social distancing, masks, and good hygiene should be enough to keep most people safe.

In my area churches are reopening this weekend at 25% capacity as part of phase two.

In the old city churches 25% of the capacity of the building is about normal attendance these days.

For more active congregations or those with smaller facilities, it seems like they could have two services to help with social distancing.
 
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The rule of "hours of exposure x number of people x closed environment = +/- risk" applies. Or to put it another way: The more people I interact with, the longer that interaction, the more closed the environment, the higher the risk of COVID-19 spread.

I haven't read any science that contradicts that basic, simplistic formula. It's easy to extrapolate from. Gathering 30 people in a park over a leisurely, 5 hour afternoon get together to celebrate a birthday = less risk than gathering 10 people for 2 hours in your living room for that same celebration.

Moving, fresh air is better than still air or recirculated air. An outdoor environment greatly dilutes the virus aerosols, allows them to spread and move and dissipate far more easily than when those same aerosols are trapped in a room, so there's far less chance for you to inhale ENOUGH of those particles to create the viral load necessary in your system to infect you.

It's anomalous to putting one drop of blue dye into 8 oz of water vs that same one drop into a 20-gallon tank. The 8 oz will turn blue. But you'll hardly notice a color change in the tank. (Disclaimer; those portions may not be an accurate representation, I'm just trying to make a point)
 


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