How does wildfire smoke enter a home?

Written by

Tecnobosque · Research Path

How does wildfire smoke enter a home?

Smoke enters through uncontrolled leakage, intentional ventilation and door / window opening; indoor concentration then depends on air exchange, deposition and filtration.

Short answer

A building is not perfectly sealed. Pressure differences from wind, temperature and mechanical systems move outdoor air through cracks and openings. HVAC operation can either reduce or increase infiltration depending on configuration and filter performance. Portable air cleaners remove particles from recirculated indoor air at a rate represented by CADR, while building air exchange keeps introducing or removing air. During a power outage, the clean-air strategy becomes coupled to battery or generator runtime.

Reasoning path

How to analyse the question

Start with outdoor PM2.5 and its timestamp.
Estimate or bound infiltration / air-exchange behaviour rather than assuming indoor equals outdoor.
Match filter and purifier CADR to room volume and target air-cleaning rate.
Plan the electrical runtime needed to sustain filtration during outages.

Knowledge Graph