Air high quality might be impacted by smoke from wildfires. Our reporter got down to construct an air filter — in a mode the EPA praised, utilizing solely issues she already had at house.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
It is nearly summer season, and if latest years are a tenet, which means heightened threats of wildfires. Billowing smoke from wildfires could cause harmful air high quality ranges. Air filters in houses may also help handle smoke, however what if you do not have one? NPR’s Alejandra Borunda got down to see whether it is attainable to make your individual air filters.
ALEJANDRA BORUNDA, BYLINE: The quick reply is sure. You may construct a DIY air filter in lower than half-hour with stuff that you just most likely have already got in your home.
ELLIOTT GALL: My identify is Elliott Gall, and I’m an affiliate professor within the division of mechanical and supplies engineering at Portland State College.
BORUNDA: He is the designer of this air filter referred to as The Cocoon. Graduate pupil Brett Stinson explains.
BRETT STINSON: It is fairly easy. It is only a material filter. That is cotton batting and a field fan.
BORUNDA: Mainly, only a tube of material connected to a field fan. Gall says it is an outdated expertise referred to as a baghouse filter.
GALL: And it primarily is a chunk of material that you just drive air by means of that filters out particulate matter.
BORUNDA: To me, it appears to be like like a blobby, puffy, 8-foot-long sausage. Nevertheless it works nearly in addition to air filters you should purchase. Right here within the lab up in Portland, we load up a sealed bedroom-sized space with smoke and begin The Cocoon working. Inside about 10 or quarter-hour, the air is just about clear. And my accomplice and I got down to construct a Cocoon for ourselves.
That is Ali (ph) and Alex’s (ph) try and make a field fan filter.
Gall despatched me a PDF with directions. First, we observe down a typical field fan, like those they promote in nearly each ironmongery store. You then want a giant piece of material that is 72″ broad.
Here is the measuring tape.
That is vital as a result of that dimension will match neatly on the fan.
(SOUNDBITE OF MEASURING TAPE PULLING AND RETRACTING)
BORUNDA: Gall used cotton batting just like the stuff within quilts.
However we do not have that, clearly. I am not a quilter. What we do have – they usually say is OK – is sheets. Cotton or linen work finest, they are saying.
We discovered an outdated, full-sized flat sheet behind a cupboard. That was excellent. Greater ones may work, too, however you’d have to chop them down. So then we took the sheet, and we folded it in half lengthwise, like an enormous scorching canine bun. After which I connected the 2 lengthy sides collectively very rigorously with duct tape.
(SOUNDBITE OF DUCT TAPE PULLING)
BORUNDA: You find yourself with this massive, lengthy tube. And then you definitely take some rubber bands or hair ties or no matter and twist them round one finish of the tube – such as you’re placing it in a bit ponytail.
(SOUNDBITE OF RUBBER BAND SNAPPING)
ALEX: That works.
BORUNDA: And now we’re on to the final step. We slip the open finish of the material tube across the fringe of the field fan and duct tape it in place.
(SOUNDBITE OF DUCT TAPE PULLING)
BORUNDA: However be sure to do not make this error.
I coated up the controls. In order that’s a bit bit foolish. That was my mistake. Do not try this.
Then we flip it on.
(SOUNDBITE OF FAN WHIRRING)
BORUNDA: Ooh. And we now have inflated an enormous blue tube.
It poofs up and appears precisely like a kind of slinky tubes little youngsters crawl by means of. Gall says it really works finest in case you can run it in rooms that are not too massive, like in a single day in a bed room, for instance. For NPR Information, I am Alejandra Borunda.
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