Many people are suffering from poor air quality in their homes from factory farms. They need an inexpensive solution as they cannot afford to move. They are incurring particulate matter including nano particles, as well as ammonia and Hydrogen Sulfide.
Question: What are ways to make DIY filters to remove particulate pollution from indoor air?
11 Comments
@BSweet thanks so much for the reply--do you have any suggestions for the biofiltering devices? Also, have you performed any tests of your own using these materials?
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Yes, in a professional capacity. In the DIY space not so much.
To keep it simple and cost effective I might suggest sticking with Activated Carbon. AC is a widely used, effective adsorbent. There is lots of available information from product manufacturers and academic sources related to the efficacy of AC adsorbents for various contaminants.
Many 'off the shelf' carbon products would have fair adsorption capacities for the contaminants you are concerned about. This is a technique you could easily employ today to improve indoor air quality while simultaneously experimenting with design/adsorbents to improve efficiency in the future, based on site specific requirements.
As for a Biofiltering device, it would require a higher degree of sophistication and cost to make it effective in this application. I would suggest taking a scrubber based design approach. If you are still interested I'd be happy to chat about that idea further or help with an adsorbent based approach. Cheers.
@BSweet This is all very helpful, and the carbon filter for the window will help people who can't afford A/C in the summer. I would like to chat more about carbon products when windows are closed. Do you have a link for a product example? I don't know much about these as I'm only a HEPA user at my house. Also, as far as chatting more, I'm thinking we might arrange a video conference/call as Public Lab offers an "Open Hour" focused talk 1/month where anyone can join in. I don't know if you are already subscribing to the Air Quality feed for emails, but it would be great to have you around!
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Just to get the ball rolling, I would suggest exploring activated carbon adsorption, scrubbing, and/or biofilters. These options would likely be the most reasonable from a DIY/cost/safety perspective for particulates, ordors, ammonia, H2S.
I would ensure the source is ambient air vs. household water as treatment would be different.
Literally just stumbled on this site. LMK if I can help more with specifics.
Great suggestions! I've also seen some stuff up at #air-filters -- one by @Melissa here: #12171
HEPA filters are a great choice for reducing particulate matter. Unfortunately, they are relatively ineffective for treating the gaseous compounds of concern (NH3, H2S, odors).
An easy addition may be to use that setup (#12171) with a combined HEPA/Activated Carbon filter (e.g. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Activated-Carbon-Passive-Window-Air-Purifier-AC-736/206173822). This would remove both particulate matter and the gases.
Additional steps could be taken to further improve the effectiveness for these compounds (impregnated AC/proper sizing/design) and/or integrate other techniques (trickling/scrubbing for NH3). Buying raw GAC or powdered AC would likely be cheaper and enable different design applications. You could even make your own if you're so inclined.