Activated Carbon Filter Design

Hello all,

I've been having a few problems with odor control. I have looked into neg-ions, and Activated carbon filters. I built a small ACF that I'm using now, Its to small and the smell is still coming through after a few hours of lights on. Stinks up the whole Apt.

I was searching the web and came across some commercial aplications over 3000 of them. With pics and diagrams. They were all basically the same thing, just real big. A canister with activated carbon in it, and fans pushing and pulling air through them.

So here's What I got out of it.

I drew this up last night, The basic Idea from every thing I saw.

I have 4 pic's. Heres #1 the diagram.

 

Having that in my head I headed to my local Homdepot and bought all of this.

Pic #2 Materials

Material list from the recipt.
1. 1 - 4" inline duct fan 19.97
2. 1 - 7" x 3' galv. duct round 6.61
3. 2 - 7" to 4" reducers 12.26
4. 1 - 4" duct cap 3.65
5. 2 - 4" straight collors 2.59 ea.
6. 1 - 12" x1 5' x 1/8 self adhearing duct insulation 11.96
7. 1 - roll of foil tape 2.98

For a Total of $65.30 US

The 4" duct fan is to small Im going to go with the 6" same price + $1.00

 

I already had the screen materials here about $10

Heres what it looks like 1/2 assembled.

Pic #3

 

There is a round piece of screen on the exaust side that holds the carbon in oince it is filled.

Here is what it looks like all assembled and insulated.

I will be changing the intake and exaust to 6" with a 6" duct fan before I fill it with what I'm figuring to be about 10 pounds of Activated Carbon.

For what I priced similar types for on the web I still came out ahead By about a $100.US building it my self.

Its a 4' muffler! lol

When I fill it and put it to work, should be this weekend, I 'll let you know how works and if it was worth it.

Tell me what you think. I'd rather BUILD it than BUY it.

 

WHell here it is.

My completed Actibvated carbon filter.

I learned ! thing right off after hooking it up, I NEED A BIGGER FAN!!!

Thats y I didn't finish monday, There wasn,t enough air flow. To resolve this I installed the 4" 70 cfm on the intake side and the new 6" 160 cfm on the exaust.
Duct booster fans are not going to work for this filter. I guess I'm guma to have to join the big boys and get a real inline fan, Excuse me Can Fan "L'authentique"
Now I now what that word means. there is a hydro store down the street I can get a 6" 440cfm for $214.95. Man gona have to save some pinnies for that.

Any way It is working the smell is gone. Even at this low of an air flow. I did have a bit of a heat wave for 2 days it got to 100 deg in the grow room. The Lady is doing fine. I had to vent the light seporatly ( wher is that spell checker?) to get the heat down, I need a new fan for that too. $money $money $money.

I used aptox. 114 oz's or just over 7 lb. of activated carbon $10.99 a carton, The bathroom is a mess after cleaning all of that. Glad I have 2. I'll clean it tomorrow.

Pic's The stand is in a nice 8" castiron plant holder, the 6' fan is attached to a 8" to 6" reducer and the rest of the filter is seated into 8" side and is removable without removing the fan via a air tight foam seal and about 30lb or so of tin and carbon.

I will keep you updated on the lack of smell. I dont smell any thing yet. Light come on in an hour. I'll smell in the morning.

 

This is what I ended up building. The 2 shown above were to small. This one worked great. unfortunatly the crop was a loss as the police removed the plants. girlfriend talked to much. they didn't know there was any thing in the apt. until they opened the doors to the grow room. when it was all said and done they left the filter and both friges and all the ballasts and me believe it or not. I haven't been charged yet. 2 years to go.

The filter is built on the same primas as the commercially made AC filters. I basically added the 12' ducting to the out side of the filter to be able to set it on the outside of the grow room. The air from the room comes in through the Top center 6" intake and exits through the 2"x10"x25" (The screen filter is 2" thick, 8" I/S Dia. and 10" O/S Dia.) carbon filter (7 lb's of carbon) and out the bottom of the 12" duct. The stanley blower inside an old 12" sub woofer box made this work excellent. It vented directley in to the room with no smell at all.

I still have the filter and the room it is next to is the new grow area. No MJ I lost intrest in going to jail. so I don't plan to give them a good reason to take me. The filter is working with my hot peppers for now.
Sorry about the sideways pic.

Retired? I'll never tell.

 

Hello all

First off sorry for the delay in replying I have been real busy.

Thanks, Newb-herber,
I thought it was an appropriate use of a subwoofer box.

tekeen,
Yes, 3/4" ply modifyed subwoofer box. I used the Stanley mini blower from lowes sitting on foam to minimize vibration. It has 3 setting. I used the low setting attached to an attic temp switch, a little crude but it worked for me. The noise is much less than a standard bath exaust fan and for 40$ I cant complain.

Dr.Doe.
I used 1/4" square screen as the housing, wraped the inside with standard window screen. To hold it all together in a cylnder I used an 8" duct cap for the center and screwed the 1/4 in screen to it, for the outer I used a 10" duct cap and secured it to the 8" end cap to hold it in place, made it easyer to change the carbon when I needed to. The top is basically the same excpt I used duct reducers screwed together 12" to 10" outer housing. 10"to 8" middle (out sid of the filter) and an 8" ( center of the filter) to 6" center to connect to the grow room ducting. there was a little modification to get it all to layer together the way I wanted it too. to seall all of the leaks I used aluminum duct tape. the only removable parts after construction are the outer 12" housing from the reducer and the 10" end cap for carbon replaceing.

To ensure I always have a negative pressure in my grow room I added a 6" duct fan at the intake of the filter with a NO/NC 120v relay. When the blower (pulling) is on the 6" fan is off, when the room gets below 80deg F. it switches to the 6" duct fan (pushing). This ensured my plants always have fresh air and that the aroma never gets into or better yet out to places I dont want it.


Retired?