During my visit to Zurich for the first meeting with IQAir, I saw one IQAir machine connected to a “duct” in their office and I asked Jens Hammes (CEO of INCEN AG – international marketing arm of IQAir) what the duct was for. He mentioned that it was for specialized applications to create pressurization in hospital rooms, etc. I had my “AHA” moment. I was struggling with the problem of high CO2 in my bedroom. Nobody was able to fix that problem. Upon my return and signing up with IQAir, I decided to put in one of the first machines in our bedroom with the “ducting”.
We cut a hole in the wall with a 5” diameter. I was scared that the air outside was so dirty that by bringing in very dirty air through the machine all the time, the filters would get damaged in just a few days if not hours. But I decided to give it a shot. And the results were incredible. The PM levels in my room were down to between 0 and 5 micrograms per m3. The CO2 levels were down to 600-700ppm from 2000-3000ppm. Great. But the filters. I was surprised again. But this took time. I was checking the filters every week. There were 4 filters that get installed with this setup. The first filter was changed (washable) in about 2 months. The second lasted for about 12 months. The third lasted for 14 months. And the last one is STILL going strong. After 27 months. This was commercially viable. And we started selling these machines with the option of ducting. It is one of the ONLY solutions in the market whereby a small machine can take care of CO2, particles and a broad spectrum of gases without major maintenance and where the filters last a very long time.