I recently moved to an apartment that's second floor street side, and the amount of dust I get is insane. I have to vacuum every day, sometimes twice a day. I heard about Corsi Rosenthal boxes as DIY air purifiers and figured I'd give them a try since I think a conventional air purifier with my budget wouldn't do much, but I've encountered two roadblocks.1. Box fans seem to be virtually non-existent in Europe. I've only found a 30cm desk one, though the guides online seem to recommend at least 50cm wide ones. Instead we got those circular ones, though I guess I could use cardboard to make a square frame for it.2. Merv 13 filters which were recommended seem to also be an US thing, getting them in Europe costs me twice as much. I've read that HEPA filters don't work as well because of airflow pressure stuff that I'm too dumb to understand, so I don't know if there's an european Merv 13 equivalent. So my question is, are there any europeans here who made CR boxes? And if so, what did you use, and did you manage to stay in a $200 budget?
>>2950162>Corsi Rosenthal boxesstop calling them that>though I guess I could use cardboard to make a square frame for it.makes sense. box fan blades don't scribe a square, they are also a circle cut into a square frame>I've read that HEPA filters don't work as welliirc hepa is not a single filter, it describes a range of filters which exceed some particle size filtration.the smaller the filter grid, the smaller particles it will catch, however it will also clog much faster and require a more powerful fan. and presumably the cost will be affected.i would suggest you start with as large a filter as you think will help and if it doesn't, replace with a smaller one.i would suggest bang for buck fan wise look at 10 to 12 inch duct fans, flat pancake style which work on centrifugal principle will overcome a lot of pressure issues with high filtration, at the cost of noise.suggest you look at the flow/pressure curve of the fan and the impedance of the filter and work out from there how many room air volume changes per hour you will achieve. shitting together some crap from a box shed is easy, doing it properly and efficiently takes some amount of effort.remember the curve is important. a 2000cmf desk fan will achieve nowhere near that figure once you add filter impedance. you need to know the fan curve.you can always make your box much larger if you can afford more filter area.
Not OP but would a screen cover work for keeping out some of the dust?
>>2950162> Box fans seem to be virtually non-existent in EuropeGood. In the depicted orientation, the bearings on the fan can destroy themselves quickly—they weren’t designed for that orientation.>>2950192> screen work for keeping out dust?For some kinds of “dust”, like clothes lint, hair, and fluff from trees, yeah. What I did is build a box with one side face made of cardboard with a round hole in it to match the size of the fan and then just set the box over the fan and adjust it accordingly soas the fan blows out of the hole.. Works wonderfully, and normal bearing wear.Another tip: most filters are like non-woven polyester and are actually washable if it weren’t for the cardboard surrounding frame.You can either stabilize (waterproof) the fame, or remove it and build a plastic frame for it and re-caulk it into the frame and wash it that way.Filters are the razor blades and mobile-phone-plan in these schemes.
My old window intake compatible design
>>2950228That's a pretty cool shape. I wonder if it's even more efficient than the standard box one, because the fan pulls air from behind it so stacking the 4 filters behind like that could be better than having the 4th one on top.
>>2950232it wouldn't be any more efficient. it's longer lasting due to increased surface area and ease of use in that you don't need to cut filters or buy 2 sizes but the side filters aren't going to do much until the fronts are so clogged you wouldn't want to run it anyway.a better design would be (left) and to take it a step further boxed frames for each filter s.t. you can slide them in and out to replace (right)
>>2950232I have a box fan that is specially made to hold a 20x20 filter. compared to my computers, and 2 rigged up 120mm case fans with simple filters on them, these box fans with a filter suck ass.my computer case filters more dust in a couple of weeks than those fans with a filter do.
Merv 13 is something like an f7 or ISO EPM1 filter in europe.
OP here. Searching around I came across this sort of PC case where you can put two ikea filters on the side and blow the air with 4 fans. (The Nukit Tempest Euro)https://cybernightmarket.com/products/the-nukit-tempest-euro-pc-fan-air-purifier-kitPrice wise, $150 plus 4 fans would put me right at the limit of my budget, and I think it would filter less air than the classic 20 inch CR box, but getting ikea filters is cheaper and easier for me long term.Opinions?
>>2950359I've had almost the exact same set up and it works. It is much quieter than a box fan and will help considerably with the dust. The price looks way to high for me, but I live in 'Murica where box fans are $20 bux and 4 big old filters are $30 on sale. There are many ways to rig an exhaust fan to a frame that will hold a filter, but if you want something that will just work (TM) this is going to kick the ass of standard air filters you might buy at whatever euro walmart is.
>>2950359matthias has a couple of videos on air filters specifically, and plenty on air pumps.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym2Dpx-kPT8i wouldn't personally think designing around e.g. an ikea filter was a good idea, you are fucked when they stop selling them. they won't? i have a kids wardrobe system bought 5 years ago can't get drawers for it now. anyway consider what you are trying to filter. merv 13 is around 1 micron, plenty of dust is much larger. if your house is full of 100 micron dust you will clog your filter immediately. you can get sub 100 micron woven metal mesh as a pre filter for very little money, and it can be simply washed out rather than disposed like a fabric filter.also if you are in want of filters specifically a possible avenue may be looking at car cabin pollen filters.>>2950256>it wouldn't be any more efficient.the increased surface area makes it more efficient because the fan has less impedance. >>2950359can't imagine these little fans will do anything. my pc is dusty as fuck but so is the rest of my room. it isn't collecting the dust from the entire space its only collecting the dust from right beside it.bigger a fan is the faster the blades move for the same rpm.
>>2950439>matthias has a couple of videos on air filters specifically, and plenty on air pumpsmaybe I'm retarded but this is nowhere near being worth the savings for most people. he basically traded his time in lieu of money.>$12 filter material that needs to be cut and manually installed. probably takes 1hr each time.vs>$35 filter box that already fits most box fans and takes 5 minutes to swapyour time is worth more than saving a measly $23 for an hour
>>2950162These are greatThough, I do a triple layer, Merv 5, 8, and 13
OP here again. In the end I found this site called DigiKey and ordered 4 Merv 13 filters from there (3M Filtrete) for 110 dollars total. I also bought this second-hand fan from amazon.de, I searched for one that was designed to be positioned upwards after reading anon's post >>2950195 so hopefully it won't destroy itself. This was 40 euros plus 20 for transport so 60 total. Overall managed to fit under my 200 budget. If the thread is still up by the time my things arrive I'll post a picture. I'm planning on following this guide www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxPk8yOH-z4 and make a "tower" rather than a box, though I won't be using a glue gun since I don't have one.
>>2950450> your time is worth moreMine isn’t right now!>>2950538That guy’s girlfriend approved segment is pure cringe.I made mine with 3 filters, a tabletop fan coming out of the side, and it has a top so I can use it as a table.For the fan blowing out the top, you could build a top for it with 4 pillars to leave a gap, and then attach the top to the the pillars. Then put stuff on the new top.
>>2950359Seems expensive for what is essentially a PC case with no motherboard mounting points inside.Maybe you could replicate this with an actual PC case. They go for $50 or less pretty often.
brake dust is likely kevlar and metal. conductive materials, look into ionic purifiers maybe install a foot switch for easier maintance.hepa filters rip almost immediately, they are a clean room thing, for use after the air has been heavily filter.
>>2950162Checked diy and found a thread with a similar situation here (i'm in SEA). Looking for something that will deal with VOCs because nigs are chain vaping a sauna around my apartment. Also can I say vaping is completely retarded here with kids putting ketamine and anasthetics in their chink vapes. Apparently carbon soaks fast from the 3d printing guys so thats a no go. If I can find cheap hepa filters here that'd be the best solution and replace them every couple months but they're non existent here. So I've been looking at these long term filters like the Daikin Streamer which I think uses electrostatic tech? Why do japanese filter brands last 10 years while others need frequent rechanging?
>>2950162Also OP and /diy/ could take a look at this made from a table fan. Is it even comparable to a fan attached to a MERV filter? But maybe if you're just looking at large particle filtration this might work for you. https://witonosfreestyle.wordpress.com/2015/09/26/diy-air-purifier-in-less-than-15min/
>>2950966>If I can find cheap hepa filters here that'd be the best solution and replace them every couple months but they're non existent hereIf you have an Ikea near you, they have some decently priced (around 15 bucks) almost* HEPA filters.
how about making the filters yourself?get some fabric and sew a long sock that you attach to your fan. If you need the sock to hold it's shape you use wire or some kind of basket (wire trash can, milk crate with holes, etc)
>>2950359I just bought one, going to keep it in the same room as my 3D printers to remove all the plastic airborne materials I have t been filtering before
>>2950792The ones meant for American are standard 20x20x2 filters all you have to do is replace every 12 months and all the parts jnside are just computer fans and power supplies nothing proprietary
>>2951036Yeah, I know. If a PC case is $50, and this thing is $150, you have a $100 budget to add a couple of metal strips at the right height and width and you'll beat the product.
>>2950162>mervbagagwa
>>2950985Hmm there aren't any ikeas but I did find some chink hepa filters replacements. The expensive electrostatic filters still interest me for their potential for filtering aerosols. But I can't find much on the daikin/sharp website asides from marketing.
