I thoroughly analyze the actions and methods that have been implemented in the sector to face the current virus.
By Camilo Botero*
At the request of the Editor of this prestigious journal, I have decided to write about this topic, about which rivers of ink have flowed with comments, epidemiological and scientific information regarding vaccines and drugs or economic aspects, since its impact has been devastating in most countries; labor issues, since millions of jobs have been lost due to the economic crisis; and educational, as young people and children have not been able to attend their universities, technology centres and schools.
This theme is of my special affection, because my definitive vocation is the academy; the economic, technological and social differences have been made explicit, since, in the less favored classes, there are no internet networks or reliable platforms, and the worst, not even computers, tablets and / or cell phones suitable for teaching via the Internet.
I have contact with university and school professors, who tell me all the difficulties generated for the teacher to teach under this modality at a distance, I myself, in my CBG ACADEMY, have experienced them. This has led to the educational gap between the disadvantaged classes, the middle and upper classes, with all the technological and economic resources at their disposal, increasing in a frightening way.
I am convinced that humanity will only be able to solve its problems of social imbalance, climate change and this Covid 19, through education in all its manifestations. Pope Francis has recently called for a great covenant for the education of all humanity, to which I adhere.
I am not an expert, as is obvious, in health issues, much less in virology and its treatments, so I had refrained from commenting on the subject, but since I have been asked, I have made the effort to write this column in relation to this issue linked to air conditioning, which has a lot to do with its possibilities of contagion and / or solutions.
I have attended many conferences on these aspects, by ATECYR, ASHRAE, CAI CHAPTER of ACAIRE, Celso Simoes, from Trox Brazil, and more recently by the scientist José Luis Jiménez, from the University of Boulder Colorado in the USA. I constantly study the WHO statistics, about it, which has become almost obsessive to me.
Humanity has been learning in fits and starts about how to deal with this pandemic without much success, but at least in the second waves, which have occurred in Spain, France, Germany and other countries in Europe, statistics indicate that the percentage of deaths compared to those infected has decreased; in America the first wave is not over yet. The vaccine, even with the foolishness of irresponsible politicians, does not arrive and will not arrive until the middle of next year and will not be applied globally until 2022. Something similar has happened with the drugs, several that were believed to work were already discarded for their ineffectiveness.
Interestingly, such a contagious and deadly virus is fought with very simple disciplines: mandatory use of appropriate and well-placed masks, social distancing of say 2 meters, permanent and meticulous washing of hands. Unfortunately, social distancing requires lockdowns that have severely impacted the economy, as in the very notorious case of the entertainment business, bars and restaurants and in general business and tourism travel, with large bankruptcies in these sectors. I am obviously in favor of the fact that the economy should not stop and that openings are absolutely necessary, but with the fulfillment of social distancing, looking for all the alternatives for the economy to reactivate.
José Luis Jiménez, PhD from the University of Boulder in Colorado USA, whom I recently heard at the ATECYR Annual Assembly, and who below I have seen and heard his theories in several videos and interviews on YouTube, maintains that one of the biggest vehicles of contagion of Covid 19 is through aerosols in the air; the scientific definition of aerosol is: "The suspension of particles of a liquid or solid substance in a gaseous medium, which can be air or any other gas." Its dimension is usually between 0.002 and 100 microns and remain in suspension periods up to hours.
In this topic is the connection between Covid 19 and our air conditioning guild; to perform the different types of air treatment in order to achieve temperature, relative humidity, percentage of outside air for indoor air quality, adequate filtration, number of changes per hour, convenient distribution in enclosures, it is necessary to circulate considerable air flows in enclosed spaces; which transports aerosols that can contain the virus and lead to contagion. This was not accepted by the WHO, until after much insistence on it, several scientists such as whom I quote here, highlight this point, so important.
Solutions of various types have been proposed: do not use air conditioning and ventilate naturally by opening windows and doors, this is feasible only in some cases and of course the benefits of air conditioning are lost; another is to increase the percentage of outdoor air that is also not feasible in many cases, and the worst, as I have repeatedly denounced, due to the lack of a regulation such as the RITE, mandatory, more often than not.... THERE IS NOT EVEN OUTSIDE AIR, which is absurd. It is a stupidity and irresponsibility of great size that the Colombian state in this case, has not approved the RITE version for Colombia, which was presented in 2012 in four of its ministries.
Nor have the unions that are in charge of this responsibility, such as ACAIRE and ACIEM, demanded it in a forceful way. The virus has highlighted the urgent need for such a regulation throughout Latin America. In Europe and the USA there is the percentage of good quality outdoor air, in their codes referring to air conditioning and are MANDATORY.
Another recommendation that is frequently given is the use of 99.97% HEPA filters, which seems to be very effective, but they are expensive and most handling units, cassettes and fancoils, do not withstand the pressure drop they add to the air conditioning distribution system. As an anecdote, José Luis PhD, commented in one of the videos mentioned, that he has donated from his pocket, air treatment equipment with HEPA filters, in the school where his children study in Boulder Co.
Another solution is to use ultraviolet lamp in air coils, which are also expensive and require demanding maintenance. Solutions such as ozone and / or substances such as detergents, alcohol, bleach etc., in the environment, do not recommend them because they are toxic and harmful to people. Much less ingest them as recommended by a political fool, whose name I do not mention.
In short, these are my opinions, very simplistic, by the way, but I believe that, if the WHOLE of HUMANITY, in its environment, strives to seek concrete solutions for specific cases, with the full support of scientists and common sense, we will be able to defeat this virus, which causes us so many problems.
* Camilo Botero is the current Secretary of the Federation of Ibero-American Associations of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration - FAIAR; he was president of ACAIRE and is president of Camilo Botero Ingenieros Consultores Ltda. He has worked as a teacher in several Colombian universities, guilds and currently in ACAIRE in diploma courses of air conditioning projects, energy efficiency in air conditioning and refrigeration, cogeneration and trigeneration, applied psychometrics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer and turbomachinery. ([email protected]).
