Can you SEE this, Can someone tell me WTF is going on here!

It is probably correct, people do stupid things all the time. Venting the virus outside where it could infect people in the area probably is what is happening...because people have lost common sense.

a reply to: Violater1

This looks very similar to what the exhaust vents placed in a local hospital looks like, after they did modification for COVID.

Someone here asked the same question to a local news station, as they too thought is was odd, and potentially dangerous.

A local news team investigated and came back with a very well done piece on what modifications were done, when, how, and why. They reported and explained why the vents where safe, though it looked scary.

I am trying to find the piece, it was in the paper, not on the internet, so I am having trouble finding it.

Have someone ask your local news paper to do an investigation. It should be something they would like to run with.

"the duct work is NOT filtered,"

Yeah... The filters are usually at the machine end and not at the exhaust.
... And also usually the inner climate of a hospital or care facility is subjected to very strict regulations.
Maybey the local facility manager has more info on what's really happening inside instead of just making conclusions based on a couple of pictures of the business end duct.

(& then if you are still worried: using PPE in the form of a FFP2/N95 mouthnosemask will be sufficient to protect your lungs from catching anything)

originally posted by: Violater1

originally posted by: Fowlerstoad
a reply to: Violater1

Yikes. That looks really bad ....

Be careful if / when you might choose to blow the whistle on that, because at least in my own healthcare system, they don't actually treat people who try to improve the situation by exposing faults very well.

Go go go my brotha

I'm in a practice here in town, blowing the whistle would jeopardize my friends and colleagues. Understand, that this is a heavy democrat town and state, and, I'd be going against some of the worst in the country.

While I'm of the personal opinion that the coldvid is overblown to the hilt, that is NOT a good look for any hospital's isolation facilities.

Gotta be a way you can attract attention without putting a spotlight on yourself....How trustworthy are your local news outlets' (assuming more than one) investigative reporters? I bet all the donuts Homer Simpson's ever eaten that they'd do the legwork for you and keep you anonymous if you set it up right (legal documents-wise)

Even if it turns out to be only menacing in appearance as NightSky said, but fine in exhaust purity, it's still worth bringing to the forefront. If nothing else, you'd at least lend a hand in educating the public (even if minimally) about how the exhaust system works.

In the meantime, PM DBCowboy first -- he's in the industry and unless I've been sorely mistaken for the last decade on here, he'd definitely have an idea of how that works, and why it looks that way.

You’re not suppose to question the efficiency of their required methods. They have enforced rules and protections for our safety after all!

That hospital didn’t look very full.



a reply to: Violater1

ever heard of anonymously tipping off ?

When all the SHTF, building engineers, facility managers, property managers, etc were inundated with information about ducts, HVAC, vents and filters. I certainly was.

We ended up ordering a metric sh*tload of Merv 13 filters, which are generally used in hospitals and areas they need to keep super clean. They aren’t good for residential/standard AC units as they block so much air flow, they can cause a lot of issues. We put them in places you normally wouldn’t. We have a couple suites on our campus that share one AC with multiple offices, so we placed some filters over the returns just for an added step of protection.

Unless you pop into one of those rooms and look in the duct, you won’t really know if they did that or not. It’s entirely possible they didn’t, but with the amount of concerned employees we had on my property, I can imagine a hospital is no different and probably had twice as many concerned employees asking about every measure in every area they could conceive.

originally posted by: NorthOfStuff

originally posted by: carsforkids
a reply to: Violater1

Call Osha!

Get an inspector out there.

Yes, get OSHA involved.

I run large facilities but not medical facilities. Even so some of the HVAC systems that we have are 100% supply and exhaust air for specific reasons.

Most buildings recycle more than 50% of the exhaust air and return it to the building space with a percentage of fresh air in order to save on heating and cooling energy costs.

I would assume that most systems in a hospital are 100% fresh air.

The exhaust plenums and louvres get much dirtier with a 100% exhaust or exhaust/supply system. I would assume that there is a lot of contaminated air being exhausted from a hospital. Unless they are using UV lights or something similar in the plenum which I doubt.

At the moment workers at our facilities are using full ppe when changing filters or working on any exhaust system.

All that grime and dust? A good percentage is human skin!

Stay away from it. I do, even with commercial building exhaust.

I’m the Chief Engineer of a large commercial campus, so we probably do a lot of the same work.

One thing we didn’t predict when we opened up some of the outside air vents on some RTU’s was the Florida humidity. We had 3 straight weeks of rain and temps still in the 80’s and 90’s. Due to the extra outside air and the humidity, we ended up having mold issues in some areas. You’re most likely not dealing with that up there!

honestly i doubt contaminated air is vented directly outside. You cant even do that in a automobile spray booth.

instead, i believe those vents you see are vents for the motors and machinery to dissipate the heat the machines/blowers are making. Just like your vacuum has a motor blowing hot motor air out the bottom yet, the suction and debri is filtered onto a vacuum bag.
most likely the room air is circulated into a minimum of a hepa,( or better,) filter. then exhausted out in a different vent

I think youll be ok.

a reply to: chr0naut

Doctors said all along that 20 feet was the minimum safe distance indoors to prevent the spread of the virus. 6 feet was an arbitrary workable distance which didn't offer much protection but could be used in a business setting and at least offered some reassurance people were doing something to kepe themselves and others safe. It was the same with masks, they really offer little protection but gave people at least some sense of security.

a reply to: Violater1

I risked my lively hood on releasing these photos.
Those vent ducts are NOT attached to any inside filters.
I'll try and get a photo today of a picture of the inside room duct, attached to nothing, and exiting the room via the board that they cut a hole in.