It seems that exhausting news these afternoons is on the increase while the nice news is in short supply… Part of the reason is that exhausting news is, unblessedly, more interesting than nice news.
- Several consecutive afternoons of perfect 74°F sunny weather will not make any headlines but a single exhausting storm that causes an electrical outage will be widely reported by every news outlet in the area.
The a single exception is sports. The winning team will be celebrated while the losers go beach home largely unnoticed. A similar situation occurs in our weekly lives with our cars, PCs, appliances, in addition to a home’s Heating and Air Conditioning system. If they are running smoothly, the people I was with and I don’t supply them a minute thought but when they stop laboring or split down, the people I was with and I instantly begin to recognize anxious over a substantial service bill. The worrisome news with Heating and Air Conditioning systems today is that even if they are laboring perfectly, there are potential health risks, filters for Heating and Air Conditioning have Minimum Efficiency Reporting Values or MERV ratings that run from 1 to 20. Filters capable of trapping germs in addition to viruses have high MERV ratings of 17-20, a rating way above the normal household filters that have single-digit MERV ratings. The risk is that the hour particles floating in the air will be breathed in by unsuspecting folks. The solution, especially in substantial commercial buildings is to increase ventilation to dilute any germs in addition to direct the stream of air into less populated areas so any pathogen can settle in addition to die instead of infecting someone new. The other “must-do” is to sanitize the ductworks constantly. That may not be good news, but at least it’s not exhausting news.