I have an ozone generator. I use it occasionally and never in the same room. It's pretty useful for clearing out odors as long as you air out the space afterwards to help the ozone dissipate.
You can skip a step and clear the odors just by airing out the space.
If the odors are of the type and quantity that airing out the space isn't sufficient, the issue to deal with might be the source of the odors.
An air filter with activated carbon can also help reduce odors.
If you were ok with that state, that's great, but eliminating the source of the odor tends to be more effective way to deal with it.
You would be treating the symptom, not the cause, with a harmful chemical that probably wouldn't completely eliminate the mildew, and have unknown side effects.
It would be far better to install a dehumidifier and proper ventilation to manage the mildew problem than killing it off with ozone afterwards.
(For reference, there's a $50m house nearby for sale that has no exterior walls at all. It's being sold at a discount - only $12m! - because of a notorious incident that took place there, and the fact that the owner can't return to the country without risking arrest and a fourth trial.)
Sounds like you are in or near the tropics. How do you control the mildew when you are at home? Presumably not with ozone, but with ventilation. Can you just have the house do that when you are not there also?
We’re also in a high humidity environment with equally breezy construction standards and have struggled to keep the house mildew-free when we travel in Summer. We eventually settled on running a compressor-dehumidifier 24/7 during those times, but it’s not perfect.
We considered installing a Lossnay to create a consistent positive pressure gradient and help with humidity exchange, although in our case construction - although not extensive - is tricky as we’re quite high up. You might be better off.
[1] https://sg.mitsubishielectric.com/en/products-solutions/air-...
Odors are caused by some VOCs. Some VOCs have no odor, including harmful ones.
> Ozone destroyed them.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.estlett.1c00773
Conclusion:
"... this work shows that for at least some consumer-grade portable air cleaners that claim to remove VOCs from indoor air, VOC removal may actually be minimal, and the air delivered may contain additional VOCs and/or oxidation byproducts, some of which are known to be harmful to human health."
It also inhibits the sense of smell and it can cause the accelerated release of VOCs from materials, which then enters the air.
https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/air-cleaners-ozone-...
If it works for you, great, but it doesn't destroy anything.
Lol what do you think destroy means?
Just because you can't smell something because it has been "destroyed" by being converted to something else doesn't mean it's not harmful to health.
Again from the EPA:
https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/ozone-generators-...
"First, a review of scientific research shows that, for many of the chemicals commonly found in indoor environments, the reaction process with ozone may take months or years (Boeniger, 1995). For all practical purposes, ozone does not react at all with such chemicals. And contrary to specific claims by some vendors, ozone generators are not effective in removing carbon monoxide (Salls, 1927; Shaughnessy et al., 1994) or formaldehyde (Esswein and Boeniger, 1994)."
"Second, for many of the chemicals with which ozone does readily react, the reaction can form a variety of harmful or irritating by-products (Weschler et al., 1992a, 1992b, 1996; Zhang and Lioy, 1994). For example, in a laboratory experiment that mixed ozone with chemicals from new carpet, ozone reduced many of these chemicals, including those which can produce new carpet odor. However, in the process, the reaction produced a variety of aldehydes, and the total concentration of organic chemicals in the air increased rather than decreased after the introduction of ozone"
"Third, ozone does not remove particles (e.g., dust and pollen) from the air, including the particles that cause most allergies. "
Name me something physical that is actually "destroyed" (mind the laws of Physics). The use of the word is used to describe the destructive process that causes a specific thing to not exist, and almost always means it was turned into something else.
The source needs to be cleaned from surfaces, encapsulated (i.e. by painting over it), or removed by disposing of uncleanable materials like smoke residue on carpets.
> Name me something physical that is actually "destroyed" (mind the laws of Physics). The use of the word is used to describe the destructive process that causes a specific thing to not exist, and almost always means it was turned into something else.
I don't think we disagree about the physics, only about whether the byproduct of the conversion resulting from oxidation with ozone can be harmful or not.
If the citations I've provided haven't convinced you of the risks of using ozone generators for air quality, then by all means enjoy whatever methods work for you.