内存微粒
Residents of the West Coast have been experiencing a continuous onslaught of air pollution unlike any we’ve previously seen. For many of us, we are trapped indoors with generic recommendations to “stay at home,” “keep doors and windows closed,” and “reduce outside activity.” But is that truly enough?
西海岸- [R esidents一直在经历的空气污染不像我们以前见过的任何一个连续的猛攻。 对于我们中的许多人来说,我们被困在室内,提出了“待在家里”,“保持门窗关闭”和“减少户外活动”的通用建议。 但这真的足够了吗?
I called Beijing home for many years, which is one of the most polluted cities in the world, and have lived through multiple weeklong hazardous air events both there and here in the states. Through the years, I learned a lot about how air quality works and have evolved my thinking on how to best improve in-home air quality.
我打电话给北京的家很多年了,这是一个华氏度世界上污染最严重的城市,并通过多种为期一周的有害气体事件都存在,并在美国这里住。 这些年来,我学到了很多关于空气质量如何工作的知识,并且对如何最好地改善室内空气质量有了自己的想法。
![Panoramic view of the Great Wall of China in smoggy air.](https://i-blog.csdnimg.cn/blog_migrate/98372cca647cffcb769bf4b6b8072a77.png)
Sign up for The Bold Italic newsletter to get the best of the Bay Area in your inbox every week.
订阅《 The Bold Italic》时事通讯,即可每周在收件箱中获取湾区的精华。
呆在室内至少是你能做的 (Staying indoors is the least you can do)
If you own a cheap, small particulate pollution (PM2.5) meter, you probably know that most indoor environments only reduce the concentration of particulate pollution by between 10%–25%. While that’s definitely better than nothing, it’s not much solace if concentrations are at the unhealthy >100 micrograms/cubic meter levels that the Bay Area has been experiencing for weeks.
如果您拥有便宜的小型颗粒物污染(PM2.5)仪表,您可能知道大多数室内环境只能将颗粒物污染的浓度降低10%至25%。 虽然这绝对总比没有好,但如果浓度达到湾区数周来一直不健康的> 100微克/立方米的水平,这并没有多少安慰。
评估您的室内空间 (Assess your indoor space)
Is it big? Does it span multiple floors? Are individual “air spaces” sealed off from other areas or is it one big open-plan kitchen and living area? Where do you and your family spend most of your time?
大么? 它跨多个楼层吗? 是将个人“空气空间”与其他区域隔离开来,还是一个大的开放式厨房和起居区? 您和您的家人大部分时间都在哪里度过?
The answers to each of these questions will determine what strategies you should use for improving the air quality in that space.
这些问题的答案将决定您应该使用哪些策略来改善该空间中的空气质量。
评估风险 (Assess your risk)
Do you live with people who are at high risk of respiratory distress or have a history of asthma? Does the air pollution level cause you to have a sore throat or headache? It might be worth spending more money or energy on this if you fall into a more sensitive category.
您是否与呼吸窘迫风险高或有哮喘病史的人一起生活? 空气污染程度会导致您喉咙痛或头痛吗? 如果您属于较敏感的类别,则可能需要为此花费更多的金钱或精力。
The quick and easy way is to buy the biggest, most expensive air purifiers and place one in each room in your home. That’s for people who can afford it. For the rest of us, I present to you some thoughts gleaned from many years of experimentation.
快速简便的方法是购买最大,最昂贵的空气净化器,然后在家里的每个房间放置一个。 那是给付得起的人的。 对于我们其余的人,我向您介绍一些经过多年试验得出的想法。
![A digital air quality sensor display showing that the current PM2.5 is 340, the PM10 is 457, and the PM1.0 is 196.](https://i-blog.csdnimg.cn/blog_migrate/1303fe8ce2fed333dcfb5953cadec2a0.png)
第1步:购买/借用廉价的空气质量监测仪,以便在进行改进时了解正在发生的事情 (Step 1: Buy/borrow a cheap air quality monitor so that you know what is happening as you make improvements)
There’s no way to tell whether your improvements are working unless you have one of these. If you can’t buy one (say, because they’re out of stock), borrow one from a friend when you are making adjustments — you only need it for a few days to figure out what’s working and what’s not.
除非您有其中一项,否则无法说出您的改进是否有效。 如果您不能购买一个(例如,因为它们缺货),请在进行调整时从朋友那里借一个-您只需要几天的时间就可以确定有效的方法和无效的方法。
![A gap at the bottom of a door.](https://i-blog.csdnimg.cn/blog_migrate/5d3f76a54e770c21d1d672e51cf7e6ac.png)
第2步:减少进入的脏空气 (Step 2: Reduce the dirty air coming in)
This one is pretty basic — if you have very old or very leaky doors and windows, spend a couple dollars on window/door “insulation foam tape.” It’s about $10 for a few yards, and it’s easy to apply. You can find it at your local home improvement store or on Amazon.
这是非常基本的-如果您的门窗很旧或很漏水,请花几美元在窗户/门上的“绝缘泡沫胶带”上。 几码大概是10美元,而且很容易申请。 您可以在当地的家居装饰商店或亚马逊上找到它。
To apply it, look for places where you can see outside light streaming in or feel outside air leaking into your home. Apply insulation tape to make the door/window close more seamlessly.
要应用它,请寻找可以看到外界光线流入或感到外界空气泄漏到您家中的地方。 涂上绝缘胶带以使门/窗更紧密地关闭。
Some people choose to tape up their windows to reduce the infiltration of polluted air. You can do that, too — just keep in mind that you will get carbon dioxide buildup if you do that, so you will need to periodically air out your space.
有些人选择用胶带粘住窗户,以减少污染空气的渗透。 您也可以这样做-请记住,这样做会积聚二氧化碳,因此您需要定期排空空间。
![A hand holding a Filtrete filter in a store.](https://i-blog.csdnimg.cn/blog_migrate/d04bd9ed84eb40fb45ac97c23abdceed.png)
步骤3:使用现有的中央供暖/空调或购买空气净化器 (Step 3: Use existing central heating/air conditioning or buy air purifiers)
This is where the real money comes in.
这就是真正的钱来的地方。
If you have central heating/air conditioning that can be run on “fan-only” mode, the first thing you should do is ensure that you have it equipped with a filter with the highest MERV rating that your furnace can suitably handle.
如果您有可以在“仅风扇”模式下运行的中央供暖/空调,那么您应该做的第一件事就是确保您配备的MERV等级最高的过滤器能够适合您的熔炉。
Note that higher MERV ratings mean more particles trapped, but also less airflow — and potentially more stress on the fan/blower of your central air system.
请注意,较高的MERV额定值意味着会捕获更多的颗粒,但气流也将减少,并且可能会给中央空气系统的风扇/吹风机带来更大的压力。
Keep in mind that MERV 14+ is probably not feasible for most home systems. The ratings specify “the % of particles of a certain size” that are removed in one pass. The important thing here is that a single-pass removal of all particulates is NOT what we are aiming for. We are trying to remove the highest percentage of particulates over time. In some cases, having a lower MERV rating might give a better outcome because more somewhat-filtered air is reaching all areas of your home.
请记住,MERV 14+可能不适用于大多数家用系统。 额定值指定“一次通过的特定尺寸颗粒的百分比”。 这里重要的是,单次清除所有颗粒并不是我们的目标。 随着时间的流逝,我们正在努力去除最高百分比的微粒。 在某些情况下,较低的MERV评分可能会带来更好的结果,因为 经过某种程度过滤的空气可以到达家中的所有区域。
![Split screen of an air quality monitor showing a reading of 1 on the left, and 39 on the right.](https://i-blog.csdnimg.cn/blog_migrate/7b141b8eac21cedcafa39e345e5aa733.png)
您如何衡量成功?(How do you measure success?)
To know whether your setup is working or not, you should measure the air quality outdoors, and then measure the air quality at various points in your home very quickly thereafter.
要了解您的设置是否正常工作,您应该测量室外的空气质量,然后在室内Swift测量各个点的空气质量。
Do this both before and after swapping the air filter in your furnace/air conditioning and compare the results. If your new filter is doing its job, you should see the indoor air quality levels improve, as indicated by lower readings on your air quality monitor.
在更换炉子/空调中的空气过滤器之前和之后都要这样做,然后比较结果。 如果您的新过滤器正在工作,您应该会看到室内空气质量水平有所提高,如空气质量监视器上的读数较低所指示。
Keep in mind that it often takes 10–20 minutes for filtered air to reach various points in your house.
请记住,经过过滤的空气到达房屋中的各个位置通常需要10–20分钟。
如果我没有中央空调怎么办? (What if I don’t have central air?)
Not to fret — I don’t have central air either. In this case, your air system is relatively simplified: You just need to consider how much space you have and how much you are willing to spend on air purifiers to filter it.
不要烦恼-我也没有中央空调。 在这种情况下,您的空气系统相对简化了:您只需要考虑您有多少空间,以及您愿意在空气净化器上花费多少来进行过滤。
If you have a small space (say, 300 square feet) and a shoestring budget, check out my previous article, which has some DIY instructions for strapping a furnace filter on a fan.
如果您的空间很小(例如300平方英尺),预算有限,请查看我的上一篇文章,其中有一些DIY指导,将炉子过滤器绑在风扇上。
![An air quality monitor on top of an air purifier showing a reading of 116 vs 115.](https://i-blog.csdnimg.cn/blog_migrate/3ea445f79d403763ae596ccdcf641d45.png)
If you want to spend some money, check out Wirecutter’s recommendations (the best brands to look at are Coway, Blueair, Levoit).
如果您想花一些钱,请查看Wirecutter的建议(最好的品牌是Coway,Blueair和Levoit)。
Notes to keep in mind when purchasing an air purifier:
购买空气净化器时要注意的事项:
- There is a component of “tolerable noise level” for all of these filters. The larger the fan, usually the quieter it will be to move the same amount of air. Of course, the trade-off for silence is space used and replacement filter size (and cost). 所有这些滤波器都有一个“可容忍的噪音水平”。 风扇越大,通常移动相同数量的空气就越安静。 当然,静音的权衡是占用的空间和更换过滤器的尺寸(和成本)。
- Each filter has a certain area it will cover (at a certain fan speed) — the largest typically cover around 500 square feet. In Beijing, I used to use five or more small air purifiers positioned at various spots throughout the house instead of one large one. 每个过滤器都有一定的覆盖面积(以一定的风扇速度)-最大的覆盖面积通常约为500平方英尺。 在北京,我曾经在整个房屋的各个位置使用五个或更多的小型空气净化器,而不是一个大型的空气净化器。
- A HEPA filter is not really that important. Similar to the point above around MERV ratings on furnace filters, you don’t want the most nonporous filter after one pass — you want the most cleanly filtered air over time. HEPA过滤器并不是那么重要。 类似于上面关于熔炉过滤器上MERV额定值的观点,您不希望经过一遍后获得最无Kong的过滤器,而是希望获得一段时间内获得最干净的空气。
我应该何时运行空气净化器? (When should I run my air purifiers?)
The Wirecutter editors recommend running air purifiers 24/7, but personally, I don’t think that’s the right approach. My general experience is that you should turn on air purifiers for the spaces that you are in, and turn off air purifiers in spaces that you aren’t using. That way you can save on energy costs.
Wirecutter的编辑推荐使用24/7的空气净化器,但就我个人而言,我认为这不是正确的方法。 我的一般经验是,您应该为自己所在的空间打开空气净化器,并在不使用的空间中关闭空气净化器。 这样,您可以节省能源成本。
如果您愿意在肘部油脂中加入一些更好的空气质量… (If you’re willing to put some elbow grease into better air quality…)
Then you’ll want to do something similar to what Tesla’s Model X does in “Bioweapon Defense Mode” — create a positive pressure environment.
然后,您需要做一些与特斯拉的Model X在“生物武器防御模式”下相似的工作-创建一个正压力环境。
Warning: This is not for the faint of heart. But the results are amazing.
警告:这不是为了胆小者。 但是结果是惊人的。
Conceptually, the way to do this is by taking dirty air from outside your home, piping it into a filter, and then forcing that air into your indoor home airspace to seal up all the small cracks where bad air is coming in. In China, many companies offer off-the-shelf installations of self-contained “fresh air” units — yes, including drilling a hole in your wall!
从概念上讲,做到这一点的方法是从屋外吸入脏空气,将其通过管道输送到过滤器中,然后将其强制进入室内居家空间,以密封所有进入不良空气的细小裂缝。在中国,许多公司都提供现成的独立式“新鲜空气”装置安装-是的,包括在您的墙壁上钻Kong!
In the U.S., you may have to get a little more scrappy by building something similar to what I’ve pictured below:
在美国,您可能需要通过构建类似于我在下图所示的内容来变得更加杂乱无章:
Portable AC duct (taking in air from a window adapter) + Xiaomi air purifier (with a hole cut out for the AC duct)
便携式交流风管(从车窗适配器吸入空气)+小米空气净化器(交流风管有一个开Kong)
![An air purifier with a duct leading to a window.](https://i-blog.csdnimg.cn/blog_migrate/4715ee9b0aadafbff7958503bdbdf513.png)
With this setup running on medium fan speed in a 1,000-square-foot space or larger, I get a sustained 90% reduction in particulates with that single air purifier.
通过在1000平方英尺或更大的空间中以中等风扇速度运行此设置,使用该空气净化器可使颗粒物持续减少90%。
Hope this information helps some of you breathe easier. Leave me a comment if you have any questions.
希望这些信息可以帮助您一些人呼吸舒畅。 如有任何疑问,请给我留言。
内存微粒