Another Smoky Summer in the Northwest

[oosik]

It's pretty cool outside this morning. But also smoky. Have to wait to open the windows.

 

[grsthegreat]

Yesterday was hot, but clear skies. Today very smoky, but supposed to be cooler. Never thought id say this, but i cant wait for snow.

 

[oosik]

I'm the same here grsthegreat. Cool but smoky. Maybe not snow, yet, but some rain would certainly be nice.

 

[grsthegreat]

Whats this RAIN that people speak about.

 

[arto98607]

For the Friedrichs and Honeywell. We have had both. The Friedrich's is just the Honeywell in a portable box. I believe that indoor ozone rules pushed the portable electrostatic filters out of the market.

A couple years ago, we started having dust around the house, and I couldn't figure it out. When I thought to check the Honeywell, the main light was out. Further poking around revealed that a resistor had blown on the main board. I ordered a new board, and we were back in business. It had only been running forty odd years... The Honeywell does a great job. I find the maintenance pretty easy; pull the filters out twice a year, rinse them, and run them through the dishwasher, let them drain and dry, re-install.

I recently bought a handful of 20x20x2 and 20x16x2 MERV 13 carbon filters to go on a cheap 20" fan for cleaning up the indoor air during smoke events. There are lots of great resources on how to build one on the web, but I like this one;

How to Improve the Efficiency of the Corsi-Rosenthal Box Air Cleaner - Tex-Air Filters

By Jim Rosenthal Several months ago I wrote two articles for this site on the “Box Fan and MERV 13 Filter” air cleaner. They have been viewed over 30,000 times and many people have built these air cleaners following the simple directions in the articles. They are easy to construct, inexpensive...

www.texairfilters.com

All the best,

Peter

Yes, when Friedrich came out with the replacement C90-B model (around 2005 I think) and they mentioned it being well below the FDA limit for indoor air ozone, whereas the earlier version C90-A manual or brochure says nothing at all about it.

Apparently the outside air in big cities has lot higher levels.


The built-in whole house Honeywell has a low-ozone setting in the circuit board.


I like the filtered box fan version and may build one for our laundry room!

 

[grsthegreat]

Holy crap, air was worst yesterday then i have ever seen it. Visibility about 50 feet. and supposed to be worse today.

 

[oosik]

It's cool again this morning - 59. The air is translucent and full of "crap". It doesn't smell smokey & doesn't burn my eyes. I was able to use the fans to cool the house.

The entire sky, to the east, is pastel orange as sunrise approaches.

 

[cqaigy2]

Was smokey yesterday, hot. Irritating to the throat. This morning don't notice any smoke and a cool 58F, pulling air into the house.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Would you mind saying which kind did you get IE. is it portable or built in the return air duct type?

Not many brands of portable electrostatic ones available now since Friedrich stopped making them few years ago.
Most every store selling portable air-cleaners is offering ones with expensive filters which need replacing regularly and looong time ago I made a decision not to get one of those!

Our house has had a whole house (Honeywell) electrostatic air filter since it was built in the early 80's.
It's installed in the return air duct of a heat-pump and the heat-pump variable speed fan and HRV always run at a low speed whenever it's not heating or cooling the house.

I also keep a portable electrostatic air cleaner in the laundry room running 24/7

The system has kept inside the house smoke free, even during the worst conditions.
Few years ago when there was a large fire in the Gorge, the east winds were blowing smoke directly to us around the clock for day after day and everything outside got covered in a layer of ash.


Only trouble with the electrostatic air cleaners is the maintenance and I think most people do not want to mess with them once the new wears out!

I bought the 3M electrostatic furnace filters. They use the moving air to generate a static charge. When smoke gets bad, I switch the heat pump fan to circ, which runs it at low speed unless the compressor kicks on.

 

[arto98607]

I bought the 3M electrostatic furnace filters. They use the moving air to generate a static charge. When smoke gets bad, I switch the heat pump fan to circ, which runs it at low speed unless the compressor kicks on.

Thanks, I like to 3M electrostatic concept!


I was doing little online searching and found these Lasko fans which have mounting for standard 20x20x1 inch furnace filter in the back.

I've had a feeling a portable electrostatic filter is little bit of an overkill for our laundry area, since it's always the small & coarse plastic pre-filter that clogs up fairly quickly.
We are vacuuming it every time we remember to, but it's really never often enough!


This Lasko may be a good & easy to maintain solution just for the general dust created in the laundry area, but I am not buying the "Air Purifier" sales pitch - I will be happy if it removes most of the general laundry room dust.

I was planning to build on of those "Jim Rosenthal" fan versions, but was little concerned about the space one of those 22 x 22 x 26 inch home-built versions like shown in post #20 would take - this Lasko will take only 22 x 22 x 6.5 inches.



I've got one of these on order and will see in few weeks how well it works?