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Experiments on a $50 DIY air purifier that takes 30s to assemble

dyno-might.github.io

51–60 of 149 posts

Re: Experiments on a $50 DIY air purifier that takes 30s to assemble

#51
post #29

Interesting. I only have central ventilation but my mom has central heated air in her house, in theory she could chuck a HEPA filter in front of it to get cleaner air in all of her house.

Odds are good that she has a MERV filter... and that it hasn't been changed in years.

Re: Experiments on a $50 DIY air purifier that takes 30s to assemble

#52
water filters also have the incompatible proprietary filters problem. I wanted to try filtering some water so I could make coffee that wasn't bitter but every water filter seemed to want me to buy a bunch of plastic to go around a replaceable filter. In the end I settled on pyrolysized cherry wood branches, (activated carbon, or biochar). It seems them carbonated bamboo is also used in tea making. It worked but it certainly took a long time leaving the sticks in the water.

Re: Experiments on a $50 DIY air purifier that takes 30s to assemble

#53
post #29

Interesting. I only have central ventilation but my mom has central heated air in her house, in theory she could chuck a HEPA filter in front of it to get cleaner air in all of her house.

Note that this can be a really bad idea. While it might temporarily improve the air quality, extreme filtration will reduce the air flow through the system. This will in turn reduce the efficiency of the heater, possibly in a way that causes its internals to overheat and destroy themselves. Rather than "upgrading" to higher filtration, you are safer replacing whatever filter is there with a new clean one that matches the correct specs and then adding higher quality filtration separately.

Re: Experiments on a $50 DIY air purifier that takes 30s to assemble

#54
From "Better Box Fan Air Purifier" https://tombuildsstuff.blogspot.com/2013/06/better-box-fan-a... :

> Air purifiers can be expensive and you've probably seen articles recommending to just put a 20" x 20" x 1" furnace filter on a cheap 20" box fan and POOF! instant cleaner air for not a lot of money. It really does clean the air pretty cheap.

> There's a problem with this though. These fans weren't designed to be run with a filter. The filter will restrict air flow which will put a higher strain on the motor causing it to use more electricity and in worse cases could be a fire hazard. The higher the MERV rating (cleaning efficiency) of the filter the more stress it will put on the fan.

> Don't worry! You can still have your cheap air purifier as long as the filter area is increased to decrease the effect of air resistance. Instead of using one 20x20x1 filter we'll use two 20x25x1 filters which increases the filter surface area over 250%. It's a little more expensive because you're using two filters instead of one but the increased filter surface area also helps the filter last longer before it gets clogged up and we're saving on energy use compared to a single filter.

Re: Experiments on a $50 DIY air purifier that takes 30s to assemble

#56
post #19

What I am wondering about: I worked with and designed clean room equipment in the nineties. I remember that HEPA requires a considerable pressure difference which cannot be delivered by an axial fan. You'd need a radial one which can deliver a considerable differential pressure, at cost of throughput (where the axial fan shine). If you strap a HEPA to an axial fan and seal it, the fan runs effectively "empty", i.e. i…

> In a normal room you can see the laser beam in dark. Dear god, do you live next to a coal plant? I would argue that in a normal room one should NOT be able to see the laser beam!

You'd be surprised how "dirty" (dusty) the air inside houses is.

Re: Experiments on a $50 DIY air purifier that takes 30s to assemble

#57
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate your DIY instructions, but I really dislike how your website goes through the effort of hiding what you actually sell and also how much it costs. I don't want to "contact you" to get that information. We've been long enough in the 21st century that it has become an adult, and still I keep running into this archaic nonsense. For example, you mention your "sensor package" in the FAQ and that's it. Your DIY…

They want to change what they charge from time to time so putting a price up front will force them to leave money on the table. Not gonna happen. Contact them instead.

Change prices? Update the website.

Re: Experiments on a $50 DIY air purifier that takes 30s to assemble

#58

As most home woodworkers could confirm, a filter-on-a-box-fan works wonders in a (saw)dusty garage. Even after sanding or sawing MDF, the air is clean after about 10-15 minutes. From personal observation, I'd suggest that non-taped is a good idea, as any non-filtered air is routed through the fan to help overall circulation; ideally you want to displace all the air in the room quickly.

How long does it take to clear the air without the filter? I'd imagine sawdust is heavy enough to fall down on its own after a while.

Re: Experiments on a $50 DIY air purifier that takes 30s to assemble

#59

As most home woodworkers could confirm, a filter-on-a-box-fan works wonders in a (saw)dusty garage. Even after sanding or sawing MDF, the air is clean after about 10-15 minutes. From personal observation, I'd suggest that non-taped is a good idea, as any non-filtered air is routed through the fan to help overall circulation; ideally you want to displace all the air in the room quickly.

How long does it take to clear the air without the filter? I'd imagine sawdust is heavy enough to fall down on its own after a while.

Sawdust is a mix of particle sizes. http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/beginnnerscorner.ph... has a ton of information on sawdust.

Re: Experiments on a $50 DIY air purifier that takes 30s to assemble

#60
post #52

water filters also have the incompatible proprietary filters problem. I wanted to try filtering some water so I could make coffee that wasn't bitter but every water filter seemed to want me to buy a bunch of plastic to go around a replaceable filter. In the end I settled on pyrolysized cherry wood branches, (activated carbon, or biochar). It seems them carbonated bamboo is also used in tea making. It worked but it ce…

In the spirit of DIY/OSS here, I think ideally you’d want to emulate something like a Berkey water filter, these are basically just steel tanks with large threaded cylindrical charcoal filters (2” diameter, ~10” long) that use gravity to pull the water from the top to the bottom.

A simple 3D printed housing filled with some charcoal/carbon media to trickle filter like a Brita would be interesting to see its effectiveness.

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