Open_ERV @open_erv

I’ve been keeping something from you. The way I cope with hard things is by doing the work and putting the pain in a box. But the truth is—since I spoke out against insurance companies, things have been really hard. My practice is struggling. I built a surgery center so I could take better care of my patients, expecting to do my cases through insurance. But several insurance companies have refused to contract with me since I posted that video. The strain has been so heavy, I’m not sure I can keep the practice open in its current form. I’m sharing this because no insurance company should have the power to shut down a practice, especially one built to help people. All I want is to take care of my patients. All I want is to do the right thing. I’ve invested all of my time, money, and heart into this. And it’s dangerous—truly dangerous—that one or two insurance companies can make decisions that threaten the future of a practice like mine. I’m hoping that I can figure something out for the practice, but I just wanted to be honest with you guys because this is part of the reality of being a doctor. This isn’t the first time I’ve been here. COVID almost knocked me out. The Change.org hack, when I wasn’t paid for three months, was another blow. And now this—being punished for telling the truth. But I won’t be knocked out. I’m committed to telling the truth about healthcare, about insurance, and working to find a better way to continue to keep my practice open and taking care of women with breast cancer so I don’t lost my practice or my home. I promise I’ll keep you updated.

During the PHAN discussion today an interesting and important subject came up: people want the air cleaning machines, of whatever kind, to be cheaper, smaller, prettier, ceiling mounted and so on. I'm not saying these things are not a good idea, but many of them are not actually the same as providing clean air, and the difference is not minor. If you think cosmetics is just as important as adequate CADR, I can only suggest getting crippled by long covid, so you have the rest of your life to lie in bed and reflect on how pretty the undersized machine that failed to protect you was, and if that was the right choice. Secondly, people are constantly complaining about the cost of the machines, but if you do things right you can get ASHRAE 241 recommended clean air for about $1 per person per year (after amortizing purchase price, electricity etc.). It's only when people go for the extra fluff, insisting on bringing it along for the ride, that the costs inflate by 20x-50x, and it actually becomes more than a blip on the accounting sheet. That extra cost is not actually the cost of clean air. It's the cost of a decoration, or a little extra space in the classroom. Which is fine, schools should also be beautiful and spacious. But if you have to cut back on something, it shouldn't be the safety of the space. You make sure the kids are fed and watered *before* you splurge on the sports car, that seems perfectly clear to me. That's not what's been happening, again and again people are buying overpriced machines that are a fraction the size they should be, and by cost I mean actual total cost of operation per cubic meter. Again, if you want some fluff have your fluff, but it costs extra, and should not be paid for at the expense of foisting illness on children, ok. Again, I don't see how this is not obvious to people. I think even many of us advocates have lost sight of the priorities, here. And beurocracy counts. Insisting on doing things in a way that is unnecessarily laborious, inflating costs, is a choice. If you are good to foot that bill, suit yourself. But that is a separate line on the accounting sheet. Don't bump out the clean air for it.

Still true, for better or worse. I would note that the figures are usually room averages, so the machine can be a little higher than that, but also not really, because that's the sum of all hvac stuff in the room. 35dBa is actually really quiet though, that's probably rarely met. However, if all the sewer pipes were made too small 100 years ago, we'd all have to put up with more backed up toilets etc for the entire intervening period. Engineering standards are not just for funsies. They are still only guidance, but it is not the place of administrators or politicians to adjust them, they do not know any better, that is for sure..

Nukit @NukitToBeSure

a year ago

CADR and ACH numbers of air purifiers intended for classroom use are irrelevant without dB. We’ve had loud air purifiers in classrooms, they were turned off and removed. The problem is not awareness or building enough DIY air purifiers; it's bad design. Getting air purifiers

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CADR and ACH numbers of air purifiers intended for classroom use are irrelevant without dB. We’ve had loud air purifiers in classrooms, they were turned off and removed. The problem is not awareness or building enough DIY air purifiers; it's bad design. Getting air purifiers installed in the few places they were a few years ago was hard enough, they did not stay because they were too loud. That is the engineering point of failure that currently needs to be addressed. WHO- ≤ 35 dBA who.int/europe/news-ro… ANSI/ASA S12.60- ≤ 35 dBA blog.ansi.org/ansi-asa-s12-6… BB93 (Building Bulletin 93)- ≤ 35 dBA assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a8170d3… AS/NZS 2107:2016- ≤ 35 dBA acoustics.org.nz/sites/www.acou… 35 dBA is the standard for classroom noise. If you have a classroom air purifier over 35 dBA you have zero air purifiers. It’s 2025. There is nothing remarkable or special about shoving a MERV13 filter in front of a leaf blower and claiming a high score. The CADR of an air purifier intended for classroom use is what it provides at 35 dB. It’s not a tractor pull or Top Fuel dragster for CADR. The power has to be usable in the real world.

@NorthBoxSystems oh. It shows the sheet metal one :(.

$139 CAD! That's a great price. This machine must have a very good total cost of operation per cubic meter. I probably couldn't get the sheet metal for that price :p.

North Box Systems @NorthBoxSystems

2 days ago

#airpurifier #indoorairquality #covidisairborne #wildfiresmoke

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Join us tonight at 7:30p ET for a discussion on the precautionary principle with our friends @airsupportproject You will need a free zoom account to register. This event will be recorded and available to watch on YouTube.

@NorthBoxSystems That's a really good price!

Daniel Sanchez Estrada was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for transporting a box of zines he didn’t even write. The prosecution’s theory was that Sanchez moved zines, which discussed anti-government ideas, to conceal evidence in the case against his wife, Maricela Rueda.

@AbraarKaran Can you share you study with us? Why Merv-16? Was it those big 5 inch ones, the SAFE boxes? I like to keep up with these things :).

Made a short video on why Intercept is such an amazing milestone in the fight against respiratory pathogens. Finally there is recognition that the best defence against future pandemics and bioterror threats is ubiquitous indoor clean air. Considering the trillions of dollars and millions of lives lost recently, this investment will likely have the greatest ROI ever.

Nan Ransohoff @nanransohoff

7 days ago

Today we're launching Intercept: a $500M philanthropic initiative to make respiratory infections, like the common cold and flu, a thing of the past. We treat respiratory infections as a minor nuisance, but that’s really not the case. Most of us will spend 5% of our lives (!)

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@KashPrime we'll have to see if they actually do a good job, though, most people most of the time don't.

I explored trying to dodge one ship operation like that but it is generally impractical. First of all they are a mfr, the aliexpress guys are a different type of operation. How they are able to dodge customs and get cheap shipping I don't know and is worth figuring out, but that's not necessarily coming along for the ride with direct shipment of the parts like that. Also if you think about it if every fan buyer gets 5 packages or whatever from China instead on one package from me that may not be any cheaper. Total actual shipping complexity and work actually goes up.

I am going to start only engaging for short periods once per week on twitter, posting updates more like a newsletter for the BQF project. When I look at th 14,200 tweets I have supposedly made, only a very small fraction of that actually led to a useful outcome, and I need to run a tighter ship here with my time. Regarding the recent drama, I have not read it, I will not, I am not interested, I said a reasonable thing and I'm leaving it there. It's pretty clear the discussion is not going to go anywhere. I have a lot of real, difficult things to do and don't have time. I have not that much animosity towards Nathalie, I tried to work with her, it wasn't working out so that's the end of that. She can say what she wants, that's fine with me and it is up to the listeners to decide how much they want to listen, but I am not interested, and that's fair enough. This week's update is that the interim output grille solution is done. That was the last piece before I can start with getting the details all sorted out for the supply of the parts/their production. Then I need to make good instructions, and I can start selling kits. It's nylon black fish net, 10 mm holes, clamped down. It reduces airflow by about 2.3%, so not too bad. In an unexpected turn, I boosted the airflow by about 8% further with no impact on noise, by trimming the tips of the secondary. It's difficult to print this geometry which is why I did not try it before. Most of the parts are already sorted out, I got some new boards already, and 15 motors are on the way. Just gotta get the power supplies and shipping boxes sorted out and I'm just a few large format prints and some packing away from a few kits. I got a promising quote for the boxes, and am close for the power supplies. In the meantime I can just use good quality parts off Amazon, the boxes are a little harder. I am pivoting to kits rather than fully assembled fans. I was hesitant to do this at first because I wanted more progress faster, mostly. Assembled units are in general better for large scale roll out. However it's become clear this is going to take longer than that. By focussing on the kits first, I can focus on getting the parts supply, transport, duty/taxes etc all worked out, which is the next stage in general. The constraints regarding cosmetics etc. are less severe for kits, and it fits in with the goal of tremendous performance to cost ratio, and the diy nature of CR boxes. It also takes less of my labor per fan that gets out there, which is a bottleneck, and less space in the premises etc. Fundamentally, it is a form of collaboration with others. Teamwork makes the dream work. For now, everything will be printed, and production rate should be about 1 kit per 2.5 days. Hopefully soon I can get the largest part molded, production can rise to about 2 kits per day, a 5x increase, again bottlenecked by the large printer. With the second largest part also molded, and a few extra small printers, it goes to about 10 per day. Further expansion would probably require moving to a new premises and hiring someone to help. The break even per unit cost, including labor at a living wage, will be hard to meet while also providing spectacular value, mostly because of shipping and taxes. For instance, the motors are $11.8 USD, but after duty and shipping they come to about $53 USD, each. With a suitable sea courier service that's expected to go down to more like $20 USD, but it's still nearly twice the cost of the actual parts. Shipping would be about $4-5 of that. Fundamentally, making ends meet is sort of not a problem because if you compare the capacity and noise of the resulting air purifier (which I am trending towards dubbing an EQ-CR box, for Extra Quiet, preferrably with the 6x filter set (diagonal V in the middle)), it would cost you a few thousand dollars to get it any other way. If the fan was $1000 it would still make plenty of rational economic sense, but we want more progress than that even still. So I don't think things are on thin ice. However, getting the best result possible, which matches the dream to some degree of something more like $140 usd, is not so easy. Unfortunately production with a collaborator in China does not solve many of these challenges, and it also adds new ones. So for now, that's on the back burner again. Producing kits in small scale may seem thinking too small, but it beats just waiting. It does help get the ball rolling/pave the road.

The weekly update for the Big Quiet fan project is pretty boring this week, just linear progress. Got power supply supplier and some samples ordered. 15 motors were on their way. The tax the gov charges is almost as much as the actual motors. The shipping is way more. They are like $50 CAD after everything, each, it’s ridiculous. I would just buy them on amazon or aliexpress but the quality is not as good. Got a local volunteer to test assembly from instructions. Mostly working on gcode, reliable good quality filament supply, production procedures, destructive testing of parts to ensure good material quality (you can’t always tell by looking). Gave up on the cc3d petg-cf, has some issues. A lot of complications, mainly due to the rinky dink approach taken by the whole 3d printing industry, poor quality control, half baked systems that focus on useless features instead of sound foundations etc. etc. Solved some minor mechanical issues with printers, minor except they ruined whole prints if not solved. Backed stuff up, organized github a little better, wrote quarterly report Made some minor improvement to the fishnet clamp ring, printed and tested. Got cheaper shipping and longer wires worked out for next batch of motors. Determined packing strategy for kits. Just gotta mop up basic parts production, get boxes, then get the assembly instructions, then more boards on order. Then make kits and get them out there, basically. Not strictly BQF, but Austin from SWERV, making window mount ERV units, and I got talking about the fans in the SWERV. He’s exploring reversible axial fans, and I already designed a pretty good one for a previous incarnation for the TW4 ERV, so I sent him the CAD, told him a bit about the process I developed to make good fan blades, and some other considerations etc. He’s so far been stuck with the same crummy San-Ace/Sanyo-Deniki fan design everyone clones for reversible fans, which my design works considerably better. I also spruced up and sent a prototype I had from the past that can just be shooped into a test rig in order to demonstrate its real world performance, and that it is possible to do much better. After quitting twitter I’m practically avoiding even checking it. In the early days things were constructive but my brain has finally noticed good things rarely happen on twitter, and negative things have become common. However I should check, there is sometimes truly useful news. Tony recently shared this initiative announcement, for instance. x.com/nanransohoff/s… I just have to check in an orderly manner, meaning it becomes yet another thing on the todo list instead of a way to rest and take a break. Yay. Elon just had to trash that one thing I had, a way to get news and chat with my friends in a way I actually liked a bit, and turn it into another chore. Thanks Elon.

Nan Ransohoff @nanransohoff

7 days ago

Today we're launching Intercept: a $500M philanthropic initiative to make respiratory infections, like the common cold and flu, a thing of the past. We treat respiratory infections as a minor nuisance, but that’s really not the case. Most of us will spend 5% of our lives (!)

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Maybe someone will make use of the stuff I've been building yet. I was getting a bit worried there. I'm making fans that enable air purifiers that can meet both ASHRAE 241 and noise limitations for classrooms, offices, other public spaces, at the same time, with about 1/10 the cost per cubic meter of air as the next best machines, several times better still than typical ones. And are more reliable, for many reasons. I mostly quit twitter, there is a link to my webpage in bio, and email is the best way to contact me if there is any chance to work together, email on website.

Today we're launching Intercept: a $500M philanthropic initiative to make respiratory infections, like the common cold and flu, a thing of the past. We treat respiratory infections as a minor nuisance, but that’s really not the case. Most of us will spend 5% of our lives (!) sick from these viruses, they kill 1M people a year, cost $600B annually in productivity, and periodically threaten civilization through pandemics. So, if they’re such a big problem, why haven’t we dealt with them yet? Last year we convened ~40 leading scientists, pharma R&D leaders, biotech investors, and regulatory experts to better understand that. We heard two main reasons: (1) First, it’s just technically very challenging: respiratory viruses represent hundreds of distinct, mutating strains across several families. Fortunately, recent breakthroughs make this newly possible. (2) Second is a lack of funding: broad-spectrum solutions have historically been underfunded, in part because they’re not a great fit for most philanthropic or commercial funding (and while COVID generated a burst of activity around preventing and understanding respiratory infections through an influx of new funding, that hasn't been sustained). We think that with enough focus and funding, this might be solvable. Intercept is a $500 million philanthropic initiative that will take advantage of new tools to catalyze the development and deployment of two types of products: broad-spectrum preventatives and air cleaning technologies. This problem is undoubtedly difficult. But it’s more tractable now than it’s ever been. We think we should give it our best shot. We’re enormously grateful to our anchor funders: @stripe, @AnthropicAI, @TheFluLab, @FoundationOAI and individuals from Jane Street. And, I’m very excited to be building this with @incredutility and the rest of the team.

Nan Ransohoff @nanransohoff

7 days ago

interceptfund.substack.com/p/ending-respi…

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That should work fine, but I am a big fan of balancing things out. I dislike the idea of using inferior filter sets because it kind of forfeits a lot of potential. You want to use lots of big filters, the total cost per cubic meter of air generally stays constant or may even go down, because the filter set lasts commensurately longer, limited primarily by the quantity of pollutants intercepted.