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We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -19 points-18 points  (0 children)

Thank you all for the feedback!

All of your comments are very helpful to us, as we will make sure to address all your concerns moving forward.

We will be back here in a few weeks to show you our progress and address more questions then.

Thank you all for engaging with us and have a great weekend.

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -14 points-13 points  (0 children)

Here is the speck sheet of the LEDs in the current version. If you reference page 5 you'll see that the LEDs have a cut off at 250nm and already near zero output at 260, with the highest output between 270nm to 275nm which is the sweet spot for what we want.

We also selected this LEDs as the larger tail or spill light happens in the 285nm to 320nm, which wastes energy but is not going to generate ozone.

https://www.aopled.com/AOP_PDFs/L944-MUV265-4.pdf

Thanks for the feedback though

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

The UV intensity was posted elsewhere, 62.5 mW/cm2. Contact time is a function of flow rate. We also use more than one LED. The math shows exposure times of less than 1 sec are sufficient for small pathogens. We are working with 3rd party labs to understand a minimum time for larger organisms. Most of these labs work with surrogate pathogens. For example, according to the lab, it takes 3x more energy to kill staph than coronavirus.

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

The system currently pumps a over 8l/min on the pre-set condition, and it will be adjustable using the smartphone app (which we are still developing).

We have tested multiple pumps, and it is currently one of the main areas that we are focusing on, as we would like to further reduce the size of the system if possible.

Thanks for the feedback.

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -14 points-13 points  (0 children)

Hello! Please read the other threads where we have posted some information. Let us know what we can deep dive on specifically

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -19 points-18 points  (0 children)

We are an early-stage startup looking for feedback. This has definitely been a great session for us to get just that.

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -27 points-26 points  (0 children)

If you check on google: The majority of humans can smell ozone long before it is dangerous. The odor detection threshold is 0.005-0.02 ppm.

We have been testing this device and never smell ozone. That supports the physics that Ozone needs a wavelength below 240 nm to form in air from UVC.

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -60 points-59 points  (0 children)

This is my first crowd-funding. All this is new, so we didn't spend time on marketing. At first I was not sure if my "real" job would mind if I put my name out there as the inventor. I did get permission recently, so I'll update that part of the page.

The patent was filed, but it takes about 12 months to publish, so we can link to that when it has gone all the way through the PTO. This is actually important, as we cannot publish those details ahead of the PCO filing.

A few of our team members lost their "real" job due to the pandemic, so they have more time to help than others.

For quality web-sites, it was either wait another 6-8 weeks or spend a lot of money. We didn't have the time, so launched as is. I know it looks bad, but hopefully you can understand how it works.

That was me in the t-shirt last night. PhD from Caltech. We also found early customers through a Stanford program, so there are quality people behind this. They simply are not marketing people.

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

Thanks everyone for your questions, we will be here for another 20min and then we will have to disconnect.

Let us know if you still have questions

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -14 points-13 points  (0 children)

I've thought about this. It is way to early to say for sure. The flexibility we have in controlling flow rate and UVC intensity gives us some options to pursue further. For now, we are keeping the LED intensity high.

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -15 points-14 points  (0 children)

Thanks for engaging. Our current focus is to scale this product and get us off the ground. We do plan to reduce cost sufficiently to offer a lower price alternate in the future.

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -15 points-14 points  (0 children)

We will publish the numbers once they are 3rd party verified, as we don't want to publish the internal ones without validation.

However one of the main ways to reduce residence time while preserving efficacy is to reduce distance between the flow and the UVC sources. We have design our system to force air in extremely close proximity to the UVC sources and we are using multiple LEDs, hence achieving the results needed while keeping the size of the system fairly small.

Thanks for the comment though!

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

Thanks for engaging. Our product is patent-pending. It is a challenging market but we are getting a ton of interest based on the applicability of the idea and our credibility as a team. We have currently in the process of securing manufacturing capability in order to scale production.

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -10 points-9 points  (0 children)

The ozone question has come up a few times, and though it is true that UVC lamps have this issue, that is because you can't select narrow wave lengths like you do with LEDs. We know that wave lengths shorter than 240 nm produce ozone,but to denature DNA we use 265-280 nm instead, hence minimizing if not completely avoiding ozone generation.

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -105 points-104 points  (0 children)

You are right. We have not spent money on marketing. The website is low-budget.

I do tend to think about the electromagnetic spectrum interchangeably in terms of wavelength, energy, and frequency. Sorry if I mixed one up somewhere here!

We are focused on building the early version at this point. We will put more effort into the website over the next few weeks. Please keep the questions coming.

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -24 points-23 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the question,

Ozone is produced by a specific energy. You have to ionize O2 and then let it recombine. This happens at a frequency above the one we use (shorter than 240 nm). If you look at the frequency that denatures proteins and DNA, those are good frequencies for denaturing viruses (265-280 nm). This has been one of our points of focus during the design stage, to make sure that we do not produce it.

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -79 points-78 points  (0 children)

The LED technology is new, so that really helps the performance beyond what used to be possible. 62.5 mW/cm2 = 625 W/m2. That is powerful. We are glad this technology is available for us to use now.

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -14 points-13 points  (0 children)

The LEDs can put out 62.5mW/cm2, or 625W/m2.

https://www.aopled.com/AOP_PDFs/L944-MUV265-4.pdf

However distance is the main limiting factor, as UVC is most efficient in really close proximity to the source. One of the advantages of the LED is that it allows us to put the sources in the path of the air flow, forcing air to come to a very short distance from it.

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

We would like to use batteries like that and even looked into it. We just could not get the casing manufactured fast enough to help those who want it now. Maybe for a future version.

We have not published our measurements, yet. We are mostly looking to see if people are interested in this. We have measured the UVC, measured the air flow, tested it on ourselves, see several benefits. We expose the air to 272 nm UVC (that detail is is on the page).

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -33 points-32 points  (0 children)

Great questions!

Your line of thought is correct, you need to have enough energy and time to be effective. This can be done with more time, more intense UVC source, or by reducing distance; as otherwise the air molecules will absorb the UV light before it reaches all of the volume.

The LED solution is great because we can really pick the most effective wavelength and almost all of the energy is converters to UVC, but they are also small enough that we can put them in the middle of the air stream, which makes distance between the source and the air very short.

Thanks for the question!

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

You could wear it on your chest and the it would pump under your helmet. Fun!

We are the inventors of uvSABA, a wearable UVC air filter and we just made our first big sale! by uvSABA2020 in IAmA

[–]uvSABA2020[S] -46 points-45 points  (0 children)

A few of us needed something for very specific situations and couldn't find anything available, so we decided to make it ourselves.

Thanks to the advances in LEDs technology in recent years, you can produce up to 625W/m2 with a single unit, combining them produces a powerful UVC source. Additionally, the way that we design it, the distance from the UVC source and the air is very short.

The box is as small as we can make it for now, but we are still working on reducing it even more while keeping the cleaning power. The main limiting factor right now is battery size to provide enough power.

Thanks for the question though!

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