High‐efficiency filtration in residential forced‐air heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems protects equipment and can reduce exposure to particulate matter. Laboratory tests provide a measure of the nominal efficiency, but they may not accurately reflect the in situ efficiency of the filters because of variations in system conditions and changes in filter performance over time. The primary focus of this paper is to evaluate the effective filtration efficiency, which is inclusive of any loading and system impacts, in 21 occupied residential homes through in‐duct concentration measurements. We considered the role of filter media by testing both electret and non‐electret media, as well as the role of loading by considering new and used filters. The results show that filters with higher nominal efficiency generally had higher effective filtration efficiency in the same home. In terms of performance change, there is no significant difference in efficiency between initial and 3‐month non‐electret filters, but the efficiency of electret filters generally decreased over time. However, both nominal efficiency and performance change were vastly overshadowed by the wide variety in loading and system conditions across homes, making it hard to predict filter efficiency in a given home without in situ measurements.

中文翻译：

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住宅中央HVAC系统中过滤器的现场效率。

住宅强制通风采暖，通风和空调（HVAC）系统中的高效过滤可保护设备并减少暴露于颗粒物的机会。实验室测试提供了标称效率的度量，但由于系统条件的变化和过滤器性能随时间的变化，它们可能无法准确反映过滤器的原位效率。本文的主要重点是通过管道内浓度测量来评估21个居住住宅中的有效过滤效率，包括任何负载和系统影响。我们通过测试驻极体和非驻极体介质来考虑过滤器介质的作用，以及通过考虑使用新的和使用过的过滤器来考虑负载的作用。结果表明，具有较高标称效率的过滤器通常在同一家庭中具有较高的有效过滤效率。在性能变化方面，初始和三个月的非驻极体滤波器之间的效率没有显着差异，但是驻极体滤波器的效率通常会随时间而降低。但是，标称效率和性能变化都被整个房屋中负载和系统条件的多样性所掩盖，这使得在没有现场测量的情况下很难预测给定房屋中的过滤器效率。