Eletostatic Air Cleaner Element Design (Suggestions?)

[3v0]

I have owned a free standing unit from Sears but it only lasted a few years and cleaning the filter was a pain. In the end I started cleaning it in the dishwasher but I expect that removed some of the corona dope like stuff they used to insulate trouble spots. In the end it generated too much ozone to use.

My concept is to make a unit that hangs on the wall like a large picture or mirror. The ideas is to use one large cell (can we call it that) rather then several stacked. The cell would be hinged to for cleaning with a vacuum cleaner or even a dust collecting cleaning cloth.

I am thinking a floor to celling mirror about 12 or 18 inches wide would be a good choice.

If this is reasonable I will use Chemelec's (thank you) design for the electronics to build an electrostatic air filter.

Most units use a mechanical prefilter. The one I had used a metal mesh. I am still thinking about how to incorporate that into the design. The unit may have to be built into the wall to get enough space to make it work.

Suggestion

 

[BeeBop]

Most the ones I've had just used a sheet of metal with triangular punched holes to provide a series of 'pin points' which was located close to another metal grid, and they didn't use filters.

What you might want to look into for a filter is the activated carbon impregnated material (some kind of polyester?) which they use in filters for fish tanks.
Carbon filtering - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here is a photo of the material...Activated carbon air filters - J-D-ACTIVATED-CARBON-FILTER - Air filter consumable: frame, housing, cartridge... or navigate up on that site to see some others...

 

[3v0]

I ma not talking about the wimpy fanless free standing types sold on TV.

I am aware of activated carbon filters and do not care to use then because of cost.

I am currently running 3M Maxim Allergen 1700 on the forced air heating/cooling. Although the claim up to three months of life they last one And I run a cheap filter on top of them to catch the coarse particles.

The current filters are costing $20 to $30 a month. My thinking is that an Electrostatic unit would either extend the life of the allergens or even allow me use a less expensive filter on the furnace.

The electrostatic elements I am used to seeing are along the lines of this one from Chemelec's site.
**broken link removed**

They are a stack of well insulated plates and wires which are difficult to clean.

 

[Sceadwian]

Why don't you use more filters made from washable materials and just hose them down once a week? The more re-useable filter media you use before the final alergen filter the better. Depends on how carried away you want to get, a wet scrubber would be one possible sollution but not something people typically have installed in their homes, mainly I guess cause they use decent bit of energy and resources. I've always questioned the effectivness of ionizers, you're tradeing particulate matter for ozone production and there is no way to avoid the ozone. The large area of the plates is required, a single plate wouldn't have enough surface area to ionize the air unless it was huge and you need to restrict airflow to as close to the plate(s) as possible for it to do anything. You could always try home brewing your own plate cartridge that was easier to take apart and clean.

Just a quick question, what's your filter order? I'm guessing it's ionizer / course filter / alergen filter?

 

[3v0]

You could always try home brewing your own plate cartridge that was easier to take apart and clean.

That in my intent and I tried to make it clear in my earlier posts. I want to build an electrostatic filter of the type know as a plate precipitator. One set of large plates that can be hinged open for cleaning.

I have not found a washable filter that works with the finer particles.

Currently I am using course filter / allergen filter on the HVAC system. I do not plan on adding the electrostatic to the HVAC. Currently I run the HVAC fan 24/7. If this works out I will be able to turn it off when not heating or cooling.

 

[Dragon Tamer]

if you are willing to keep this thread open until i get back to school then i can get some of the people in the HVAC shop to give you some suggestions.

 

[3v0]

if you are willing to keep this thread open until i get back to school then i can get some of the people in the HVAC shop to give you some suggestions.

That sounds good to me. But note that I am not interested in the commercial solutions. The HVAC people I know tell me the remove as many as the install.

 

[Sceadwian]

Have you researched wet scrubbers? They're pretty simple. Atomized water is sprayed into the air chamber and the water vapor and mist precipitate significant ammounts of particulate matter, sometimes more than physical media filters. Mind you you have to deal with the contaminated water, the added humidity and the energy cost to adjust them all.

Why all this paranoia? If you have or need to deal with such severe particular requirements you have no choice of any kind but dealing with the cost of filters that's the only way to do it. Even electrostatic precipitation are at best a slight reduction in filter fouling.

Virtually nothing but clean room conditions requires this kind of effort, and you WILL pay for that level of cleanliness one way or another. Even severe life threatening allergies don't benefit from this because of the ozone production, which can NEVER be fixed, you can't use an electrostatic preciptator and NOT get ozone. What exactly is your reason for doing all this? 20-30 dollars a month does not sound unreasonable for high efficiency particular filtering.

 

[3v0]

My motivation is to reduce the down time I have due to allergies.

At this point scrubbers are not an option.

I am ony looking for suggestions in the design of an easier to clean longer lasting electrostatic filter.