Should I filter my intake air..
An increased awareness that viruses can be airborne is a good thing.
If you know something might happen, you can put a plan into place before it happens to prevent it from occurring in the first place.
Insects are normally one of the biggest problem for home-growers.
Insects always seem to find a way into your grow-room, even after you've checked, double checked and triple checked for leaks.
Along with bugs, powdery mildew, mould spores, pollen, lint, mites, fine dust, smoke, viruses, and bacteria can also be airborne.
The way to prevent these things from entering your growroom is with a combination of design and operation.
You need to maintain a positively pressure environment, and you need to be filtering your intake air, and preferably with a filter that is going to remove the smaller particles.
If we can take anything positive from COVID, it's an increased awareness of air quality and the transmission of viruses through it.
The citizen science initiative, CorsiRosenthalBox provides a great template for making a cost effective virus and spore remover for your growroom.
The #CorsiRosenthalBox uses MERV13 grade filters. The reason these type of filters are used is because this is the size of filtration needed to remove virus particles.
*MERV-13 filters are engineered to effectively block impurities down to sub-micron levels (.3 microns) with 99.97% efficiency.
You can use the CRBox in an existing room, and/or you can use the concept and filter your intake air for your growroom through a MERV13 or two before it enters the room itself.