How to build your own air filter for wildfire smoke

1 month ago

Air value tin beryllium impacted by fume from wildfires. Our newsman group retired to build an aerial select — successful a style nan EPA praised, utilizing only things she already had astatine home.

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It's almost summer, and if caller years are a guideline, that intends heightened threats of wildfires. Billowing fume from wildfires tin origin vulnerable aerial value levels. Air filters successful homes tin thief negociate smoke, but what if you don't person one? NPR's Alejandra Borunda group retired to spot if it is imaginable to make your ain aerial filters.

ALEJANDRA BORUNDA, BYLINE: The short reply is yes. You tin build a DIY aerial select successful little than 30 minutes pinch worldly that you astir apt already person successful your house.

ELLIOTT GALL: My sanction is Elliott Gall, and I americium an subordinate professor successful nan section of mechanical and materials engineering astatine Portland State University.

BORUNDA: He's nan designer of this aerial select called The Cocoon. Graduate student Brett Stinson explains.

BRETT STINSON: It's beautiful simple. It's conscionable a cloth filter. This is fabric batting and a container fan.

BORUNDA: Basically, conscionable a conduit of cloth attached to a container fan. Gall says it's an aged exertion called a baghouse filter.

GALL: And it fundamentally is simply a portion of cloth that you unit aerial done that filters retired particulate matter.

BORUNDA: To me, it looks for illustration a blobby, puffy, 8-foot-long sausage. But it useful almost arsenic good arsenic aerial filters you tin buy. Here successful nan laboratory up successful Portland, we load up a sealed bedroom-sized area pinch fume and commencement The Cocoon running. Within astir 10 aliases 15 minutes, nan aerial is beautiful overmuch clear. And my partner and I group retired to build a Cocoon for ourselves.

This is Ali (ph) and Alex's (ph) effort to make a container instrumentality filter.

Gall sent maine a PDF pinch instructions. First, we way down a modular container fan, for illustration nan ones they waste successful conscionable astir each hardware store. Then you request a large portion of cloth that's 72" wide.

Here's nan measuring tape.

That's important because that size will fresh neatly connected nan fan.

(SOUNDBITE OF MEASURING TAPE PULLING AND RETRACTING)

BORUNDA: Gall utilized fabric batting for illustration nan worldly wrong of quilts.

But we don't person that, obviously. I'm not a quilter. What we do person - and they opportunity is OK - is sheets. Cotton aliases linen activity best, they say.

We recovered an old, full-sized level expanse successful nan backmost of a cabinet. That was perfect. Bigger ones could work, too, but you'd person to trim them down. So past we took nan sheet, and we folded it successful half lengthwise, for illustration a elephantine basking canine bun. And past I attached nan 2 agelong sides together very cautiously pinch duct tape.

(SOUNDBITE OF DUCT TAPE PULLING)

BORUNDA: You extremity up pinch this big, agelong tube. And past you return immoderate rubber bands aliases hairsbreadth ties aliases immoderate and twist them astir 1 extremity of nan conduit - for illustration you're putting it successful a small ponytail.

(SOUNDBITE OF RUBBER BAND SNAPPING)

ALEX: That works.

BORUNDA: And now we're connected to nan past step. We gaffe nan unfastened extremity of nan cloth conduit astir nan separator of nan container instrumentality and duct portion it successful place.

(SOUNDBITE OF DUCT TAPE PULLING)

BORUNDA: But make judge you don't make this mistake.

I covered up nan controls. So that's a small spot silly. That was my mistake. Don't do that.

Then we move it on.

(SOUNDBITE OF FAN WHIRRING)

BORUNDA: Ooh. And we person inflated a elephantine bluish tube.

It poofs up and looks precisely for illustration 1 of those slinky tubes small kids crawl through. Gall says it useful champion if you tin tally it successful rooms that aren't excessively big, for illustration overnight successful a bedroom, for example. For NPR News, I'm Alejandra Borunda.

Accuracy and readiness of NPR transcripts whitethorn vary. Transcript matter whitethorn beryllium revised to correct errors aliases lucifer updates to audio. Audio connected npr.org whitethorn beryllium edited aft its original broadcast aliases publication. The charismatic grounds of NPR’s programming is nan audio record.