Well I am honored to be honored. It is very nice, and it sounds like it works for smaller applications. I tried to make carbon filters and ended up with purchasing one (well, 4, and big ones at that, well at least bigger). Thank you for sharing your ideas with the city.
I am doing something very similar to this design and I have a question pertaining to it. My filter will consist of a inner ring and a outer ring with activated carbon in between both rings. I have seen designs like this that have a carbon filter that then wraps around the entire thing, similar to how this poster has done to his. I live on an island where finding materials is not easy nor cheap. With that being said, can I use another type of filter material to wrap around entire filter, but still using the activated carbon in between rings as mentioned and having the effectiveness still insured? Any help or thoughts would be appreciated.
http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-room-design-setup/507790-my-coffee-can-carbon-filter.html Check mine out, super cheap and easy too.
would i be able to use the 3" elbow if i've got an 8 inch diameter fan and ducting? sorry, didn't notice i bumped this
Thanks man! Ive built 2 filters based on your design but with a few changes. I used 4 inch elbows since im using 4inch exhaust booster fans. I also only wrapped the carbon fiber around the outside once, cut off the excess, and then used the excess to cut 3, 4inch circles for added filtration at the top of the filter! Also, if your at Do-It-Yourself-Depot check the building materials section youll find some exauhst caps that fit perfectly and add support! Thanks again!
Kushman, so this really eliminates the smell huh? How many CFM does that case fan handle? It seems kinda hard to believe that a case fan packs enough pushing power to actually push the air around a bend, through all those fish carbon pellets and through 2 layers of filter. When you put your hand on the outside of the filter can you actually feel airflow coming out?? Don't get me wrong I will be super happy if this actually works cause it's gonna save me from buying an expensive centrifugal fan and filter. I wish there was some way to mount those case fans so it would pull the air through the filter rather than push it 'cause fans have stronger pulling power than pushing, but everytime I try to figure out how to mount it like that the blades of the fan end up hitting whatever I am mounting it to. I also have a 2 plant grow but a lot more CFL than you, mine is closer to 270w (actual not equivalent). Do you think your setup would still work with that change in specifications?
Believe it or not, for the application I was using it for, yes it worked, and it worked great. I was running 6 23w CFLs, for a total of about 130w. It got rid of the smell, and kept temps around 75-80. I did feel the air coming through the filter, because I have checked it before. Although recently, I did alter my set up. I replaced the bulbs with 5 42w CFLs, for a total wattage of about 210w. Once I made the switch, the fan wasn't adequate any longer. So to counteract the increased heat, I added in a 4 inch inline fan and removed some of the carbon pellets, which seemed to restrict air flow anyway. It's always possible to mount it so the fan pulls instead of pushes. You just need to fiddle around with the design so that it's set up according to your needs. The entire purpose of my design integrating the fan inside the box was for stealth purposes (it's quieter that way). I'll be the first to admit this is not the greatest setup. It was designed for those on a budget or for those running a smaller setup. Above all though, it does the job, which is all I care about.
kushman thanks for the response. I'm not exactly sure how you would go about setting the case fan to pull rather than push. The only thing I could think of would be to set the fan up off of the end of the piping a bit so that the fan blades don't scrape the rim of the pipe and hit it. I guess you wouldn't have to set it too far off the rim, just enough to allow clearance. Maybe something like in the BEAUTIFUL pic I attached where the red indicates the setoff points to allow fan blade to pipe clearance and the blue indicates nothing at all as I only put it there to confuse people.
Well actually there's a very easy way to do it, even with my setup. Just flip the entire structure around. Set it up so the filter is inside the box, and the fan is on the outside. If you have to, take a pair of pliers and cut off the grill of the fan, and glue it back onto the opposite side so the blades don't contact anything. If there's a will, there's a way
Would this work in eliminating the smell for 3 plants that are about 2 feet tall growing in my basement and stop the smell from getting into the house? Because one day I walked in and the house smelled like a greenhouse, had to pull.
check out this store for VERY cheap activated carbon! Cheaper than amazon and e-bay. free s&h too. link: My Products
I have a question... How do i buy pantie hose without looking like a cross dresser/pervert ? SERIOUS QUESTION LOL