Is there a place where I can get information about the MERV rating of certain HEPA filter products?
Build a do-it-yourself home air purifier for about $25
181–190 of 355 posts
Re: Build a do-it-yourself home air purifier for about $25
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wirecutter doesn’t have endorsement fees
they don't, although if they recommend you, they'll ask you for a cut of sales (affiliate program). if you say no, they'll switch their recommendation to your competitor and never review your brand again. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16729408
When they link to a product on Amazon they then ask the brand to give them an additional cut of sales? I'm surprised Amazon allows sites to double dip like that.
Re: Build a do-it-yourself home air purifier for about $25
#183I been pondering about this solution for months since my air purifier died back early summer. I also have an additional idea to make it more automatic by using a raspberry pi, hooking it up to a powerswitch tail (essentially cutting power to a fan) and have it automatically turn on and off depending on time of day, etc.
I have mine on a homekit enabled outlet ($20) for scheduling and presence-based triggers. Unfortunately I haven't found a homekit enabled air quality sensor to pair with it.
There’s Netatmo Home Coach.
Re: Build a do-it-yourself home air purifier for about $25
#184I built my own air purifier in 2016, living in London, I was living in a basement and was having breathing problems due to mould. My landlady was gaslighting me at the time, so I built the air purifier. It worked for a while but mould spores cling to the paper filter and eventually grow into the filter material. I think Dyson uses glass fiber filter to stop this problem. My filter helped a lot, but eventually I had s…
That’s devastating. I hope you recover as much as possible.
Re: Build a do-it-yourself home air purifier for about $25
#185I do this and it works wonders if you have pets. Tips: - run this homemade air purifier when you are vacuuming, as that tends to agitate particulates a lot - get 2 filters, a cheap low grade and a premium, high-HEPA-rated filter. Stack them together and you can replace the cheap one frequently and the expensive one less frequently.
Does it go: Fan --> Cheap Filter --> Expensive Filter Fan --> Expensive Filter --> Cheap Filter Cheap Filter --> Expensive Filter --> Fan Expensive Filter --> Cheap Filter --> Fan ?
Cheap Filter --> Expensive Filter --> Fan
You put the filters on the intake, so that the airflow helps making a seal instead of creating leaks.
You put the cheap filter first everything that it catches will not clog the expansive one.
Re: Build a do-it-yourself home air purifier for about $25
#186Huh! I independently "invented" this myself a couple of days ago when the Camp Fire blanketed the bay area in smoke. I got a 20x20 filter and some duct tape from Home Depot and a box fan from Target. (After discovering that Home Depot only sells fans in the summer.) I don't think I was the only one, though. HD was doing a brisk trade in 20x20 filters, and I think I bought the last box fan at any Target in the entire…
Don't you want the filter on the incoming side? Air handling systems always put the filter on the inlet as far as I'm aware.
The filters are also designed to have air pulled through them.
There's often an electrostatic component that ties into a filter's efficacy, as well.
Re: Build a do-it-yourself home air purifier for about $25
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apparently this NASA study needs a huge asterisk next to it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18193622
What? I have read the report myself. They put in Benzene inside a sealed room and one of these plants. A few hours later the Benzene was gone! Absorbed by the plant. They did the same with formaldehyde too and other harmful substances. Isn't that the bar for purification? This is still better than mere air dolter that are costly and requore frequent maintenance
I think the key term here is sealed room.
And this does not invalidate the study, only helps evaluate the results in context of applying at home or office. I.e. it's still gonna help, but unless you restrict your airflow, not as much as you'd like.
Though the same caveat probably applies to all air purifiers too.
Re: Build a do-it-yourself home air purifier for about $25
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
Woah, this is pretty scary. Thank you for sharing. How did you know it was mold that was in the air? Is there some sort of test kit that you can buy to test for this. Mold is pretty hard to detect because you can't really see it because it typically hides between the walls. Any advice appreciated.
The CDC has some recommendations on it (yes you can have mold tested to see if it's dangerous): https://www.cdc.gov/mold/stachy.htm I'm not really sure about keeping the humidity below 50% though. The UK and most of Northern Europe has rather high humidity in the winter. It commonly reaches 80-90 RH outside, so you'd have to heat your house to 25c/77F to bring the humidity below 50%.
Northern Europe gets really cold, so while RH may be high, it’s not moist at all. People get dry skin in the winter.
Re: Build a do-it-yourself home air purifier for about $25
#189I worry about air pollution especially when I'm in Jakarta or Singapore so I bought the Dylos DC1700 air quality monitor. It is great to know exactly how bad the pollution is and how effective my air purifier is - I feel like I'm walking around with x-ray vision.
Know any merchant who sells Dylos DC1700? I'm in Jakarta too, kinda hard to find these kind of hardware
Re: Build a do-it-yourself home air purifier for about $25
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
Woah, this is pretty scary. Thank you for sharing. How did you know it was mold that was in the air? Is there some sort of test kit that you can buy to test for this. Mold is pretty hard to detect because you can't really see it because it typically hides between the walls. Any advice appreciated.
The CDC has some recommendations on it (yes you can have mold tested to see if it's dangerous): https://www.cdc.gov/mold/stachy.htm I'm not really sure about keeping the humidity below 50% though. The UK and most of Northern Europe has rather high humidity in the winter. It commonly reaches 80-90 RH outside, so you'd have to heat your house to 25c/77F to bring the humidity below 50%.
"The UK and most of Northern Europe has rather high humidity in the winter."
Indoors? No, not at all. In the winter the temperature in my house/office is 21-22C and 17 at the lowest at night, and I have to run a humidifier 24/7 to keep the humidity over 30% (otherwise the wooding floors shrink too much).