DIY Air Filter
With wildfires raging and air quality terrible across large portions of the country, folks without high-end HVAC filtration systems are struggling.
Build a Corsi-Rosenthal box with a simple box fan and filters you can buy as most big-box stores (or Costco!) If you’re able, build a few spares to share with neighbors!
How to do it:
You need one household box fan, four air filters (3M MPR 1900, MERV 13, or equivalent, all the same size as your fan edges) cardboard and duct tape, as well as a box knife to cut the cardboard.
The general idea, if you can’t see the direction in the image, are to duct-tape the four fans into a box so that the air flows into the box and seal the fifth side with a piece of cardboard. Tape the box fan to the remaining open side to that it draws air INTO the cube, with the fan blowing clean air upward. To reduce noise and help seal the edges, cut a shroud that fits the box and has a hole for just the fan part of the box fan, and then seal all edges carefully with duct tape.
This helps remove smoke from the air better than many commercial purifiers for about $65, and if you use air filters with sufficient filtration, can also reduce covid and other contaminants. If you like to know all the details, here is a UC Davis tutorial, with video of one of the inventors building a box.
