Sanitizing Masks With Alcohol Degrades Performance

With mask shortages during the coronavirus outbreak, some doctors are sanitizing masks with alcohol so they can re-use them. But this raises questions about whether alcohol actually works and whether it degrades the masks.   Does Alcohol Kill Viruses? The research on alcohol is clear. Alcohol kills viruses. Technically, viruses aren’t …

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DIY air purifier effectiveness blueair iqair philipps cheap god air purifier

Directly Comparable Tests: DIY vs Blue Air

I’ve wanted to know for a long time whether DIY air purifiers are as effective as the Ferrari filters.

DIY Air Purifier Cheap

In an earlier post, I compared my data to the tests of Dr. Saint Cyr (whose excellent posts inspired me to look into filters in the first place). But I noted that the comparisons were far from perfect because:

  1. The rooms were different.
  2. The Cyr post did not specify how long the tests were (and that can make a big difference if you’re looking at times under an hour–see this time comparison).
  3. The Cyr post did not describe the particle counter or particle size.

How We Tested The Air Purifiers

But now I finally have directly comparable data! That’s because two kind souls donated a Blue Air 203/270E (3,600 RMB) and a Philips AC4072 (3, 000 RMB). That means I could finally test the DIY against expensive brands in the same room, for the same amount of time, with the same particle counter.

DIY Purifier Test Method PM2.5

To do that, Anna ran 11 overnight tests with the Blue Air and 9 tests with the Philips. As always, I calculated effectiveness as percent reduction in particulates from the room air. Anna tested the air before she turned on the air filter, and then set a Dylos DC1700 laser particle counter to take hourly measurements of the air in her 15m2 room.

DIY Air Purifier PM2.5 Test

Anna used the highest setting on each purifier. (I’m putting the original data and more details about the methods for fellow nerds at the end of this post.)

And (drumroll!) here are the results:

DIY Purifier Test BlueAir Philips IQ Air PM2.5

The Cannon removed as much particulate as the expensive machines. Not bad for 450 RMB!

Yet all four filters were making the room air significantly cleaner. For particles 2.5 microns and above, all four removed over 90%. For particles 0.5 microns and bigger, all four removed over 80%. I’m not the first person to say: All you need to significantly reduce the particulate pollution in your home is a simple HEPA filter.

Based on the data, here’s how much you’re paying for each percentage reduction in 0.5 micron particles:

Price versus Effectiveness DIY Air Purifier Philips Blueair

(And that’s not counting the cost of the exorbitantly priced replacement filters.)

Recently, a Chinese news article claimed air filter companies are making “falsely inflated profits.” That fits with this data showing that the Cannon removes as much particulate as the Blueair, yet costs about 10% per percentage of 0.5 micron reduction. Similarly, the Original DIY removes 4% less 2.5 micron particulate and 6% less 0.5 micron particulate than the Blueair on average, yet the Blue Air costs more than 16 times as much.

Bottom Line: Air Purifier Test

You can remove particulate pollution from the air in your home and pay far less than a Blueair or Philips

Smart Air

What About Gas Pollution?

Now, as I’ve said before, particulates are not everything. There are also gases like ozone and nitrogen dioxide (although I’m less concerned about those). Here’s how to know whether your home has serious gas pollution. If it does, tests show that activated carbon removes gases like formaldehyde and benzene.

Open Data and Methods

As always, I’m posting the original data and detailed methods for fellow nerds. Don’t believe me. Check out the data and decide for yourself.

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DIY Cannon: Better, Faster, Stronger

Ever since I started my DIY filter experiments, I’ve been wondering whether I could create a super DIY by using a stronger fan. In the past three months, my collaborator Anna has helped me test a half dozen different fans. She now has a home full of fans:     …

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Smart Air low cost purifiers

Smart Air is a social enterprise and certified B-Corp that offers simple, no-nonsense air purifiers and provides free education to protect people from the harms of air pollution. We are proud to be the only certified B-Corp dedicated to fighting air pollution.

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