My Authors
Read all threads
How fast does air leave a room? It is complicated. Think about a cup of black coffee. How much milk do we have to add to the cup before we only taste milk? If we add one cup of milk to our cup of black coffee (allowing it to overflow) the result will still be a tan cup.
In fact, due to mixing it will be just two thirds milk. We would need to add three cups of milk to get our original black coffee cup to be 95% milk.

Indoor air behaves the same way. As outdoor air enters an indoor space it mixes with the air already indoors.
So how long does it take to replace aerosol laden air from indoor spaces with outdoor air? In residences, 95% of the indoor air will likely be replaced with outdoor air in a time frame that ranges from 30 minutes (leaky house) to 10 hours (tight house).
In public buildings, 95% replacement may take between 12 minutes to 2 hours. In a hospital, 95% replacement might take 5 minutes.

So how long an airborne virus stays in the air indoors is highly dependent upon the indoor environment.
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh.

Keep Current with Dustin Poppendieck

Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!