iN VIDEO: This DIY air purifier will help you breathe easier in the wildfire smoke
With thick smoke from wildfires making it hard to breathe in Kamloops and the Okanagan, there's a do-it-yourself solution to effectively clean the air in your home.
The Corsi-Rosenthal Box can filter out particles like dust and wildfire smoke, and it's cheap, effective and easy to make. All you need is four filters, a box fan and duct tape.
There are numerous videos on YouTube showing how to build the box, including this one by co-inventor Dean Richard L Corsi at the Davis College of Engineering.
“This device was created to provide for significant reduction in the amount of virus laden aerosol products that are in the air,” Corsi said in the instructional video.
Corsi uses four 20x20x2 inch MERV 13 filters to make a box shape with all the air flow arrows on the filters pointing to the inside of the box, and connects them with duct tape.
“We’re going to use a lot of duct tape to seal up all the edges around the fan to make sure all the air that goes into the box goes through the filter media itself and not around the edges where particles would not be effectively filtered,” he said.
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The cardboard box the fan came in is used to build the floor of the system and is sealed to the filters with duct tape.
“I want to make sure that when I sit the Corsi-Rosenthal Box shell over the box I’m covering most of the bottom.”
The 20x20x2 inch box fan goes on top blowing air upwards and the gaps around it have to be sealed. Any bigger gaps can be covering with pieces of cardboard and sealed.
The box filter system can deliver 600 to 800 cubic feet per minute and is incredibly effective for lowering the levels of virus-laden particles, dust and wildfire smoke in classrooms, offices and homes.
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How long the air cleaner will be effective for depends on how long it is used every day and how dirty the air is.
When the white of the filter media is too dirty to see through, the filters need to be replaced. If running on low for only part of the day the system can last five to six months, but it will only last a month or two in dusty conditions.
For a general idea on the cost, the four Merv air filters at Walmart cost just under $40. You can get a three pack of duct tape for around $15 and a 20-inch box fan costs roughly $25.
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