Dust Control

[mikek]

I just want to share this information with all. Let me say first that I have nothing to gain by recommending this product. I will let pictures do the talking for me. First I built a plenum to direct airflow to the inlet of the heat pump. This is airtight against the wall and unit. It is also removeable because I thought it was going to be a constant battle to keep the coils clean. I have used clean room filters 6 inches thick in the past and dust still managed to get through them. I met these folks at a Home Show here in Austin and when I built my new shop I called them and had a filter made to fit. (12" x 48"). I have another for my circulating air filter 12 x 24. The first picture is of a clean filter install. The 2nd is the front and backside of the filter media after a lot of sanding and wood turning over a two month period. There is not one small dust particle that gets by the green side of the media. When I changed the first filter media, I could not believe what I saw. Absolutly NO DUST in the plenum. It is still very hard for me to believe after so many years of cleaning clogged air conditoners. These people make any size frame you may need and then supply you with refills when you run out. After I changed this the first time, I ordered these for my home without consulting the boss. I had to get her to figure out how much each filter cost ( they send you about 6 changes at first plus the one in the frame) and then compare it to the "best" filters on the market. These are cheaper, but the result is that they work and ANY others I have tried over the years don't. You can see a LOT of dust on the floor and equipment under the airconditioner.

Here is the link: www.superiorairquality.com (http://www.superiorairquality.com)
Gay or Mickey Harris
512-217-7136
512-925-8408

[genek]

that is a good filter however you may need to up size the filter... the more it removes the bigger the filter needs to be to give you the same amount of return air that the a/c or heat pump needs... return air is more important than supply air...
check with you a/c company that installed the unit...

[mikek]

The area is about 6X the area of the inlet. The media has almost no restrictions even loaded. It's amazing.

[genek]

everything has restrictions a 90 degree elbo in duct work has a restriction value of 15%
loss... most high eff. filters can and will cause you to lose a compressor. the better they clean the air the bigger the filter has to be... they will and do lose air flow as they catch more dirt and dust. a hvac unit is designed for to move so much air. any loss in air flow hurts the unit. to much will destroy the compressor and it will also cause the fan motor to over head..
normally a 20 x 20 filter frame will handle up to a 3 ton unit. if you place a high eff filter in in the 20 x 20 filter frame it will only handle up to a 2.5 ton unit. that is a big drop ..... normally you will go 1.5 times the required amount for a high eff. filter.
dad always went 2 times.. to allow for faster stop up of filter...
you have to have 400 cfm of air per ton on return... any drop in airflow to the unit is hurting that unit and will shorten the life of that unit.

[gerryv]

Eugene,
What fully or near fully off-the-shelf Portable dust extractor with HEPA filtering would you choose to handle a full size PRSalpa with a 4 HP spindle that would see a lot of planing and jointing as well as the usual cutting and carving? I'm currently using an Oneida 2.5 HP Dust Gorilla cyclone. But wanting to downsize the shop, and the noise level, if possible. we'll keep the two Delta air cleaners running as well.

[genek]

actually i built my own..what i got was the blower part of a gas furnace. made me a box that the blower was mounted in and put three 20 x 20 filter racks in it one on the end one on each side... could have added two more one top and one bottom... set the fan speed to high and just let it blow back out into the room... most that are common will not handle the amount of dust that the cnc generates... that is why i built my own... the normal ones are for hobbyist not pro..;l

[Brady Watson]

Mike,
Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed post. I'll definitely be checking these out!

-B