I’m looking to collect information on what, if any, air purification devices choirs are using in their rehearsal spaces, and what experiences (good or bad) they have had with these devices.
The motivation is that, as we continue to navigate periodic outbreaks of respiratory illnesses, including but not limited to COVID, in choral settings, I’ve been thinking about how I can help reduce the incidence of disease spread in the choirs I sing in. There are several technologies, including HEPA filtering machines and far-UVC disinfecting lamps, which should in principle help, but I haven’t found any sort of uniform best practice out there, so I wanted to ask what folks are doing in their choirs about this.
So far I know of one choral organization (the Seattle Choruses) that uses far-UVC lamps in their rehearsal space and has had a good experience with them. Any others out there want to share information about what you use, or have tried, and how it’s worked? It seems like our rehearsal spaces should be a particularly good use case for portable air purification devices, for several reasons:
— choral rehearsals involve more concentrated exhalation of breath than most gatherings
— we usually don’t own our rehearsal spaces, so can’t renovate them for better HVAC (and even if we could it’s very expensive)
— and they often don’t have windows that open, so control of ventilation quality is limited
Thanks in advance for any anecdata (or not-anec data!) you can provide.
Edward Harvilla says
You and your members should have an afternoon “Build a Box Party” as hundreds of thousands of groups of all sorts globally have done throughout the pandemic and Canadian wildfire smoke problem. Search google for “Corsi-Rosenthal Box UC Davis College of Engineering” for the article by the genius himself, Dr. Richard L. Corsi. Caveat: Don’t scrimp on the filters — buy 3M MERV 13 filters only not cheap “knock-offs.” As so many have learned, best, yet inexpensive solution, to air purification. Plenty of information on U.C. Davis site and on X.com from engineering experts regarding number of boxes needed to purify air in spaces based on square-footage and other space configurations.