homemade carbon air scrubber

[busteruk7]

ello all i would like to build a carbon air scrubber as the scrubbers on the market are too much £ for me so i was wanting to build one so if anybody has any info on this it would be muchly apreciated
step by step plans would be nice if anybody has any if i can get one built i will post pics (goes without saying) of the final product
thanks all look forward to hearing ya ideas

busteruk7 Reviewed by busteruk7 on 03-24-2006. homemade carbon air scrubber ello all i would like to build a carbon air scrubber as the scrubbers on the market are too much £ for me so i was wanting to build one so if anybody has any info on this it would be muchly apreciated step by step plans would be nice if anybody has any if i can get one built i will post pics (goes without saying) of the final product thanks all look forward to hearing ya ideas :) Rating: 5

[Zandor]

It's just a wood box about 24�x18�x36� where you have air drawn in through the top with a furnace return grill about 16x20. Next you get 5 medium quality filters the ones with screen mesh on one side are the strongest. You can use 5 to 10 pounds of active charcoal from the fish store for each layer. You make a charcoal sandwich and use gray tape to seal the sides and make it one big thick filter. You build the box so the filters fit tightly on all sides. You have a stop of about ½� trim all around the part where the filters end so you can keep them in place and tight but do not restrict the air flow through the filter.

Next you have a 12â?� air gap between the bottom of the filter sandwich and another plywood sheet you attach the high volume fart fan (bath room fan) to the underside. This is about 18â?� from the top going down overall measurement. You should have about 18â?� of empty space for the return air to fill so you drill 2â?� holes along the bottom of the box for return air back into the room.

The idea is to pull the air through the filters clean the air with the coal and return the clean air back to the room. Mine is in the ceiling and has a duck return system back into the room. You need to build the same thing but in a self contained wood box. I like this design better then the cylinder version it's easer to keep fresh and reuse for many years.

[busteruk7]

cheers zandor that is a lot of info cheers one question tho what is a furnace return grill

[turtle420]

Hey Zandor, is this more or less what you've got?

I'm asking because my own carbon air scrubber was a 90% failure... plus, the pic might help other people get the idea (it helped me).

[mountainman]

Plywood Fart Fan?

[turtle420]

Plywood Fart Fan?

I think it's a piece of plywood, with a fart fan in the middle... blowing air towards the bottom...

Zandor, how much CFMs the fart fan? I see a lot the 50CFM (square), the 90CFM (6" circular) and the 300CFM (squirrel cage). What do you run?

In addition, question:::
Your carbon air scrubber is in, say, an "open" system... it takes air from the room, and sends it back into the room... right? The other option I see is that the filter is mounted on the exhaust... so, only when you exhaust do you filter the air...

[Zandor]

It's a 6" round i think about 280-300 cfm. Turtle that design is fine not sure why you had problems. What were they may I ask?