DIY air scrubber

[varikonniemi]

To continue my series of DIY articles, now it is turn to take a look how to build an effective air scrubber.
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This week we have been installing door frames in the cellar. The fumes of the paints, especially oil based ones, are quick to cause a headache, and in the winter it is impossible to paint outside. Like so many times before, i thought it would be nice to be able to pull those fumes out of the air. When looking at serious commercial alternatives with an adequate airflow and adequate filtration, the price is approximately 700 euros. https://www.expert.fi/Tuotteet/Pienkone ... -Valkoinen

This is quite a lot of money for something so simple, so i decided to try and make one myself. How hard can it be?

The fumes are gaseous, so normal air filters will do little to remove them. This is where activated charcoal saves the day. Commercial products with activated charcoal have it incorporated in a filter, which is expensive to change and the amount of activated charcoal is quite low. My design relies on sucking high volumes of air through a bed of activated charcoal.

Later on i might add a high voltage circuit to the exhaust air to ionize it. This helps any charged molecules to attach to the surfaces in the room rather than have them floating around which also helps with air quality.

Like in my last project, the idea here was to use as much repurposed stuff as possible. This worked out quite well, since the only thing i had to buy was the activated charcoal :)

See the build & pics at my blog
http://varikonniemi.wordpress.com/2013/ ... -scrubber/

[klapmongool]

Nice. What do people use this kinda stuff for?

[very_bad_soldier]

Growing their "chilis" while not annoying their neighbors I guess.

[smoth]

nice! This sounds pretty boss. Shame I have enough projects to do as it is.

[varikonniemi]

I finished a second "professional" design air scrubber, and updated the first model to be more compact.

Nice. What do people use this kinda stuff for?

If you do work with paints/solvents/solder electronics/do glass&carbon fiber etc. you can really appreciate not having to inhale those fumes and develop a headache after a while.

Many consider air purifiers to be luxury products. I once did also. But after experiencing these in action, i consider them to be a necessity.

[AF]

You're aware you can add categories to WordPress menus? You don't need to create a page with a link to the category

[KaiserJ]

stay away from those oil/alkyd based paints, the stink is killer and the cleanup is not worth it considering the nice acrylic latex formulas you can get these days

air scrubber is really fantastic; love seeing your creations!

[Forboding Angel]

You're aware you can add categories to WordPress menus? You don't need to create a page with a link to the category

Also, you should change your permalink structure to
/%post_id%/%postname%/

Much mucher nicer links that way.

WRT air scrubber, that's pretty freaking cool xD

[AF]

As of 3.4 the cost of using purely postname permalinks was brought down, it's now no more expensive than the others, and so the post ID is no longer an optimisation. /%postname%/ will be almost as fast.

[varikonniemi]

Nice to see the DIY spirit going strong here :)

KaiserJ: yeah oil paints are hard to work with but they are best for glossy finish.

I didn't want to start another thread so i will post this here:

Another day, another project!

DIY AC&DC Power Supply, variable 0-120V/2A

This can for instance be used to control the speed of the air scrubbers, or used to drive 3x50W LED elements connected in series, or whatever :)

[dimm]

Where you bought charcoal, how much it cost? Would just spreading it around a room work?

[klapmongool]

Where you bought charcoal, how much it cost? Would just spreading it around a room work?

Stoner solution lol.

[Das Bruce]

Would just spreading it around a room work?

No, you need to have the air being passed through it.

[bobthedinosaur]

Thanks for sharing. Pretty cool little DIY. I wonder how difficult an ionizing filter would be.

[varikonniemi]

Thanks for sharing. Pretty cool little DIY. I wonder how difficult an ionizing filter would be.

Nice to know you find it interestin :)

As i said in the OP, i am probably looking at building an ionizer circuit for this unit. I will update to this thread once i have it finished.

dimm: No, the air must be pushed through the micro-porous charcoal which filters out anything solid & any gasses that react chemically with charcoal. The professional model has the deep filtration depth because of this; The longer distance you push the air through the charcoal, the more opportunity it has to react. Activated charcoal costs ~10eur/kg here, about 5eur/kg in bigger markets like germany.