On surgical floors Operating Rooms(ORs) have positive pressure checks daily to ensure air handlers are working effectively. Why is positive pressure more desirable for surgery vs. negative pressure? Can either be compared to the exhaust fan in my bathroom on a smaller scale? Thanks!
In: Engineering
Your example of the exhaust fan in your bathroom or your kitchen is excellent examples. The problem is that walls and doors are not completely airtight. There is very often some crack between panels or a hole left by an electrician or something to allow the air through. Especially doors as they may warp, the seals may wear if they are installed in the first place that is or the door may not be closed all the way. The problem in your home is that there is bad odors and humidity in your bathroom and kitchen. If nothing is being done about it then the air will creep out through the doors and walls into the rest of your house. To prevent this we install extraction fans which creates a negative pressure in those rooms. And because air moves from high pressure to low pressure the air moves from the rest of your house to your bathroom and kitchen but never the other way. If you have a balanced air ventilation system in your house you will have inlets in for example your bedrooms and living room to ensure a positive pressure.
This is also used at hospitals to make sure that airborne pathogens go the right way thorough the hospital. So a place that needs to be very clean such as an operating room will get fed with filtered clean air to create a positive pressure so that air will not leak through the walls from other parts of the hospital. It is not a lot of pressure difference needed. Just enough to ensure the air is moving the right way. If you have enough pressure difference between rooms that you can feel a breeze or doors start closing or opening on their own then you have too much pressure difference.
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