Can Increased Humidity Stimulate Cleaner Indoor Air?

In a paper recently published online in BMC Infectious Diseases, Koep and his fellow Mayo Clinic researchers explore humidity in schools and the potential effects it could have on the survival and transmissibility of the influenza virus.

The Experiment
For his research, Koep, a native of Brainerd, Minn., partnered with two schools in Rochester, Minn., Lincoln K-8 Choice School and Kellogg Middle School. Over two winter seasons, he measured humidity in the classrooms of both schools using 70 HOBO data loggers. HOBO loggers, a product of Onset Computer Corp., provide data on a wide variety of energy and environmental measurements including temperature, relative humidity, ac/dc current and voltage, differential pressure, time-of-use (lights and motors), light intensity, water level, soil moisture, rainfall, wind speed and direction, pulse signals, and more. Koep’s loggers retained and reported information every five minutes.

Within Lincoln K-8 Choice School, which has an area of 50,000 square feet, Koep placed 30 sensors. At the 160,000-square-foot Kellogg Middle School, he installed 40 sensors. Koep also used seven carbon dioxide sensors to track levels in the schools, which indicated the presence of students in the classrooms.

“If it’s 60 percent humidity, we’d expect viruses not to survive nearly as well as they would at 20 percent,” Koep said. “Right in that 40-60 percent range is what we target in the schools for safety concerns and to achieve maximum inactivity of viruses.”


The Results
“The first thing we did was look at the differences in humidity between rooms, and there was basically no difference within the classrooms,” Koep said. “There was a little variability between the classrooms, but they were mostly the same.”

Dale Krageschmidt, an industrial hygienist at Mayo Clinic, contributed to the project. He said part of the problem was a lack of fresh air in schools. “When buildings are being made — especially schools — the problem is making sure that enough fresh air is getting into the systems,” Krageschmidt said. “That’s expensive, but with heat exchangers, some of those energy costs work out. One of the things the study shows is the importance of make-up air as part of an HVAC system in schools.”

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