AI6YR BenTrying to deal with wildfire smoke? Here's the best thing since sliced bread for massively improving the air quality in your room/apartment/house/etc.
How to build your own Corsi-Rosenthal Box
btw, I converted mine to PC fans, and they are SO QUIET. My family hates the sound of fans, and they can't even tell the box I usually have on is running... keeps the AQI usually sub 10 (working harder to keep up this week though, so more like 15).
If you are not the DIY type, this kit has everything you need for a PC fan Corsi Rosenthal (from CleanAirKits), you have to also buy the filters.
https://www.cleanairkits.com/products/brisk-box-basic-kit-original
Corsi Rosenthal Box | Clean Air Kits
Clean Air Kits are super efficient air purifiers built simply from banks of silent PC pressure fans and 3M Filtrete virus+allergen filters. Quiet enough to leave on always, powerful enough to protect from airborne pathogens like Flu, RSV, Strep, & Covid-19
sasutina13a is-a sasutina13a@ai6yr I've used similar to keep PC guts clean. I put flexible dryer duct between the filter box and the PC's inlet fan. Positive air pressure from the filter keeps the dust mice out of everything and prevents fouling the power supply and heatsinks, and overheating. Disabling the ion generator, if there is one, keeps it from zapping anything to death.
@sasutina13 I should do that, the dust bunnies are getting out of control in my PC, even with the Corsi running lol.
@ai6yr I had a PC in a clean work area and it still collected them. It's as if the PC was itself a filter.
@sasutina13 yeah, I think they are essentially electrostatic dust attractors, lol.
Darth Osler@ai6yr @sasutina13 they even collect in PCs in class 1000 clean rooms
Ask me how I know
@ai6yr @sasutina13 however, at a VASTLY reduced rate and scale
Yes. Even in class 1 cleanrooms. Mostly it's that superfine, submicron dust that sticks to everything.
Carsten Franke@carstenfranke @ai6yr @sasutina13 Pfizer
Used to work in a group of their clean rooms doing mammalian cell culture
When we cleaned between campaigns, we got to clean the PC's. Cruft would accumulate, even over the course of 3 months.
I think it was worse there because the clean rooms were kept at extremely low humidities. Like a dew point around 0-5°C at the time. Helped reduce biofilm formation or something
@carstenfranke @ai6yr @sasutina13 and kept the tyvek suits way more tolerable to wear for up to 8 hours at a time
That sounds much nicer than 20C at 50%RH in full GoreTex--while slaving over hot wetsinks and reactors... And, hopefully, your mask kept your airways from drying out too quickly.
@autolycos @ai6yr @sasutina13 that sounds like a fun job! But the low dew points must have been tough. I never looked inside the PCs in the clean rooms I worked in. Should call some friends ...
@carstenfranke @ai6yr @sasutina13 considering how much of the rest of me was covered, I don't remember it being too bad.
It was 20 plus years ago now, so some of the discomforts are likely forgotten
@autolycos @ai6yr @sasutina13 I spent way too much time in factory size class 1000 / 100 clean rooms. Long walks, heavy, hot equipment. All while covered in plastic suits ... I think it was about 9 years. Fun, but exhausting.
@carstenfranke @ai6yr @sasutina13 6 months was enough for me, but with the Army Reserve stuff at the time, I was pushing 70-80 paid hours a week most weeks, so I was happy to move on to a non-clean room job after at U of Nebraska, Lincoln
24 years in class10,000 to class0 and everything inbetween, from cotton smocks and paper bouffant caps to full polyester bunny suits to GoreTex suits with Dryden Shields (think powered HEPA filters that clean your breath) and almost full-face reverse respirators. It was...educational...
@sasutina13 @carstenfranke @ai6yr oof
I'm not worthy
@sasutina13 @autolycos @ai6yr oh my, how did you survive that? How do people in chip manufacturing survive that for years? I found it extremely taxing.
For me, it was taxing. There were frequent burnouts. But it also paid very well at the time.
John Tinker@sasutina13 @ai6yr
While on this subject, I have seen PCs that were destroyed (processors cooked) by dust clogging up the heatsinks.
While on this subject, I have seen PCs that were destroyed (processors cooked) by dust clogging up the heatsinks.
I've seen power supplies catch fire due to all the fluff and dirt clogging them, as well.
Simon Zerafa@sasutina13 @johntinker @ai6yr
Laptops resting on duvets tend to fail in short order. Full of dust and debris and they overheat 😟
Elyse M Grasso@simonzerafa @sasutina13 @johntinker @ai6yr I have always used a lapdesk with my laptops (partly because I prefer mice to other pointing devices).
I had a very thin plastic lapdesk that I used when traveling.
Never had a computer choke on dust.
I had a very thin plastic lapdesk that I used when traveling.
Never had a computer choke on dust.
From Robin with Love@ai6yr oooh. This is a great idea. Those box fans are loud…worth it, but loud.
EQ@eq Yes, there's some derating of room size, but the decibels are an order quieter. Makes it possible for me to just run the filter 24/7 vs. when there's bad air quality or someone is sick. Tradeoff...
@ai6yr Think there was two kinds of PC fans too, one is better at sucking air through a filter than the other. Was too long since I played with PC fans though. Got filters on all ours to keep the dust out of the PC's.
Saw a friends 90 MHz Pentium try to flame the dust when the fan stopped working. Or might have been the 3D card. Was somewhere around Voodoo times, memory foggy. Smelled horribly. 🙂
Pusher of Pixels@ai6yr interesting, I'd have thought smaller would need far higher rpm and thus noise
Roy -- the dull oneNice tip about using the electronics-cooling fans for less noise. Thanks!
Come On Giant Asteroid!Oh, yeah. I bought one of those. They claimed that they were exempt from all tariffs and duties (as they existed in T***p's head at that instant) and we got it delivered, in Canada, in a reasonable time without any "extra" costs. Things been running in the bedroom since last year (don't ask for dates - no idea!).
The duct-tape & carboard C-R is downstairs.
Rosy Maths@ai6yr Also, pollen season!
@RosyMaths Also picks up allergens from the hay the pet rabbits here get inside lol
@ai6yr That's great! (Looks at cat and dog, pointedly.)
jberry
Stephen Dioxide 
@ai6yr This is my cue to observe that you can scale this up by taping the filter over a window or two, and then placing a fan facing out in the farthest window in the house. I've done this two summers in a row.
NilaJonesHave you done that when it was super smoky out? Did you get smoke free air inside?
If this method workw for you, your house must be built extremely tight! Most houses are deliberately built to leak a bit of air, so people don't suffocate in their sleep. (It's a building code thing)
So the fan blowing out brings in air from all those little deliberate gaps, around the doors and windows, primarily
And the air doesn't come in through the open windows with filters, because the filter provides more resistance
But if your house is tight enough to work, that's great! And you're probably getting some very needed fresh air
Another option, for more normal house, is to put the CR box or other air purifier in the window, and seal around the edges. That way the fan and the filter are in the same window, and you are blowing clean air into the house
I've been doing this since 2020 in my apartment, and it works great
@NilaJones @ai6yr My house is old, so I'm sure it's not totally airtight. Still, any improvement is progress. When the smoke was bad, I noticed symptoms when I was outside, and not when I was inside, so it has to have been working to some extent.
Light bulbs@ai6yr Very interesting! I’m curious why the shroud helps: Does the fan’s chassis have holes?
@light_bulbs Yes, apparently there's some inefficiencies in the corners which reduce the suction power of the fan, causing air to be drawn in around the edges. Apparently a problem inherent in those fans!
Ray McCarthy@ai6yr
For a short moment I thought you were suggesting sliced pan loaf for the filters.
Though actually better than nothing!
I guess one for tree pollen needs good HEPA filters? That's the issue here in rural County Limerick.
@raymaccarthy These use really good HEPA filters and great ability to filter pollen!
@ai6yr
About €67 for a pack of 2x MPR-1900 filters here in Ireland.
An existing large desk fan could be dismembered. I have 35 yo one here that's rarely used as it's hardly hot enough ever*.
Addition material via free supermarket corrugated card packing from Aldi or Lidl. They often have cheap 3M duck/duct tape too.
[* If really hot** we keep all blinds & window closed (all double glazed) during the day & open some for a draft well after dark]
[** Worst was +30 °C for a few days, 21°C hot!]
Common Sparrow@ai6yr
No wildfire smoke here, but we built a Corsi-Rosenthal box for my workplace. It's a classroom setting where we get between 20-30 examinees sitting for state exams, in an old building with poor ventilation. It was easy to build, and seems to do a good job of cleaning the air with four HEPA filters and a cheap box fan.
No wildfire smoke here, but we built a Corsi-Rosenthal box for my workplace. It's a classroom setting where we get between 20-30 examinees sitting for state exams, in an old building with poor ventilation. It was easy to build, and seems to do a good job of cleaning the air with four HEPA filters and a cheap box fan.
@CommonSparrow This is GREAT! I wish more people did this.
neville park@ai6yr also comes in handy e. g. if nearby construction on masonry or some such is sending in lots of fine dust!
Bohemian PeasantNice idea. Of course the last time I needed something like this, the power was also out. For six days.
diana 🏳️⚧️🦋🌱I have a massive 50 pounds of aquarium activated charcoal within my filter to capture VOC's. I learned from decades of hazmat experience at work, it may be good for mild noxious gases to immediately lethal toxic atmospheres...
And the annoying smell from the carpet adhesives that also greatly annoyed my cat, quickly vanished.