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greetings my fellow Renegades I'll start
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by saying that I am annoyed why because
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I've been scammed by whom you ask well
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various HEPA a purifier companies
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Through The Years how are most HEPA air
00:00:13
purifiers a scam well the answer to that
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will be revealed as you watch first I'll
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tell you a story about why I started
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getting skeptical about the efficacy of
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most HEPA a purifiers in the first place
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one day an indoor environmental
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professional or IEP came to my house to
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do a Ron test in my house there were a
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couple DIY air purifiers I had built
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which were inspired by the Cory
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Rosenthal box or CR box design by Jim
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Rosenthal and Richard Cory CR boxes are
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typically built from four MV 13 HVAC
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filters attached to a box fan that sucks
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air through the filters so anyway the
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IEP saw one of my CR boxes and he said
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those are pretty good at capturing
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larger particles but they're pretty bad
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at capturing tiny particles HEPA a
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purifiers are way better at capturing
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tiny particles
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you should use a hea let me quickly
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explain about particle sizes so there
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are basically a few categories of them
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there's pm10 which are 10 microns or
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fewer in diameter so this category
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includes larger particles like dust
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pollen Etc and everything smaller
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another category is PM 2.5 or fine
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particulate which are 2 and 1 12 microns
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or fewer so this category includes some
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combustion particles Metals Etc and
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everything smaller PM 2.5 is consisted
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considered dangerous for us healthwise
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because it can get into our bloodstreams
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and accumulate in organs which can cause
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illness there is extensive evidence
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about the health impacts of particulate
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matter let's talk about one of the many
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many many studies this is epidemiology
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data from the Harvard six City study
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they measured fine particle
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concentration in a bunch of different
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cities and relative mortality rate and
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as you can see as fine particle
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concentration goes up relative mortality
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rate goes up as well and in another
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study published in the lanet you can see
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that poor indoor air quality and ambient
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particulate matter are among the leading
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causes of death this is 2.7 million
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deaths caused from poor indoor air
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quality here's another study about the
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causes of global ill health and you can
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see that in the top 10 are ambient
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particulate matter and household air
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pollution for men and women and we need
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to note that exposures to air pollution
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occur predominantly indoors because we
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spend 90% of our time indoors so for
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this reason that my IEP said to get a
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HEPA air purifier so I went on Google I
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think I Googled something like HEPA
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versus MV and was brought to this EPA
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page this chart lists the Merve ring of
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HVAC filters and their single pass
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filtration efficiency at different bins
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of particle sizes in microns single pass
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filtration efficiency is basically the
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percentage of particles passing through
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the filter one time that get captured by
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it and therefore removed from the air
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AKA capture efficiency let's go to MV 13
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which is is the rating of the HVAC
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filters in my DIY unit 90% of particles
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between 3 and 10 microns are captured
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90% is pretty good 85% of particles
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between 1 and three microns that's a bit
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worse and only 50% of particles between.
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3 and 1 microns that doesn't sound great
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at all so a lot of pm2.5 doesn't get
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captured by MV 13 if we scroll down we
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actually see a HEPA rating as well
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99.97% of part particles in the 3 Micron
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range are captured and particles that
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are larger or smaller than3 microns are
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captured with a greater than 99.97
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efficiency that sounds way better than
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the Merv 13 filters I was using and you
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might be able to see where this is going
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right so then of course I went searching
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for a HEPA air purifier to buy and I
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ended up buying three units from a brand
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that was recommended by a few mold
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inspectors that I follow and I trust I
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won't say which brand but it promised
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incredible efficiency better than
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standard hea so I was super excited when
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my three shiny new HEPA units arrived in
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the mail I immediately turned them on
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and I shut off my two DIY air purifiers
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when I first ran my new machines the
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first thing I noticed was that not much
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air was actually blowing from them so I
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turned them on high speed which made
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them really noisy and a little more air
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was coming from them but it still wasn't
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a lot so I figured hey you know their
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filtration is so efficient that maybe
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they can get away with filtering a lower
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volume of air right just logic so I
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moved on with my life and after a couple
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days my nose started to itch a bit more
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and after a few more days my allergies
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had gotten pretty bad and I was sneezing
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a lot my soft pallet would actually itch
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in the middle of the night and wake me
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up I was pretty environmentally
00:04:45
sensitive as I had mold illness from
00:04:47
which I'm actually still recovering but
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anyway it took me a bit to think that
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maybe it's the new Air Purifiers at
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first I had like a mental block
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preventing me from questioning them
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because I thought well it couldn't be
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them they're supposed to be incredible
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but then I came to my senses and I
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turned them off and replaced them with
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my DIY units from before within the day
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my allergy symptoms started lessening
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and over the next week they got
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progressively better and better and so
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at this point I'm starting to notice a
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new symptom a subtle feeling of anger
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smoldering in my chest did I get duped
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by HEPA a purifier marketing so what do
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I do when I'm angry you guys might be
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able to guess I research and honestly
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whenever I'm feeling any emotion I
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research you know it's interesting most
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of my emotions have curiosity tied to
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them in some way and so anyway my
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research question was how can HEPA aair
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purifiers capture virtually all
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particles that pass through them but
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still leave the air dirty is there a
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better way to measure their performance
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turns out there is introducing clean air
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delivery rate or
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cadr welcome to the Healthy Home guide
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this is a place where I share practical
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budget friendly tips for creating a safe
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and healthy home whether the word home
00:06:03
refers to your house or your body please
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go ahead and like this video And
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subscribe and share it with someone who
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you think needs an air purifier that
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works back to the video clean air
00:06:13
delivery rate or cadr is basically how
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quickly clean air is supplied to a space
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it can also be thought of as how quickly
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a pollutant is removed from a space
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you'll see it as lers per second cubic
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feet per minute Etc so cadr equals
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removal rate but why does removal rate
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matter well because there's also a rate
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at which pollutants in this case
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particulate are being generated in a
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space so particulate is being
00:06:38
continuously introduced into your home's
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there from various sources including the
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outdoors cooking mold our body shedding
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skin cells uh us moving around the house
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and stirring it up and More in order to
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significantly lower the concentration of
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particulate in your air the removal rate
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or cadr must be high enough to
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counteract the generation rate let me
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put it practically when your air
00:07:02
purifier has a high enough CDR for the
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space it's in there is less of a chance
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that particulate concentration will
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build to an unhealthy level if it does
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it won't stay there as long your
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duration of exposure will be shorter in
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determining the performance of an air
00:07:18
purifier from an indoor air quality
00:07:19
perspective cadr is the only measurement
00:07:22
that matters because it's a direct
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reflection of how clean the air will be
00:07:27
let's go back to my initial question how
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how can a HEPA a purifier capture
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virtually all particles but still leave
00:07:33
the air dirty to answer that I'll tell
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you this extensive research shows that
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DIY air purifiers CR boxes basically
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using MV 13 filters tend to achieve much
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higher cadrs than HEPA a purifiers to
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help us understand why we'll talk to
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Wayne Westerman and Rob wisman
00:07:53
co-founders of Clean Air kits a company
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that makes and tests air purifiers that
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actually work at an affordable price
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point Wayne and Rob will introduce the
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concept of how MV 13 filters can
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outperform HEPA in in room particulate
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purifiers the most important metric is
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how quickly are you removing the
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particles from the room so if you look
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at a Mur 13 filter for viruses yeah it's
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capturing about 75% of the particles per
00:08:22
pass but you got you know these two big
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fil treats here you got an enormous
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amount of area if you're building a Cory
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Rosen doll box is like four filters it's
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enormous area for that to happen so the
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total number of particles you're
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capturing is going to be really big so
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here this big blue arrow that's your
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equivalent of how much air is coming
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through perfectly clean now there's 25%
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leaking through this still dirty and
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everything disperses and mixes very
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quickly so it doesn't really matter if
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it's all perfectly pure coming out what
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matters is how many parles did I capture
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on that pass so if we go down to the
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heas and they'll say oh well we're you
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know hea 13 it's
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99.97% that means that the air coming
00:09:05
out of the HEPA is perfectly pure at the
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outlet it's got a very tiny amount of
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contamination still left but it's a much
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much smaller stream in most cases for
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the same cost or for the same amount of
00:09:17
noise that cleaned airst stream is Tiny
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and it's got to mix back into the room
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too so it's not capturing nearly as many
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particles because the incoming stream is
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Tiny and it doesn't really matter that
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you perfect purify a thle full of air
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and throw it back into the room it's
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still got to mix back in overall MB 13
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gives us a much much more efficient
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operating point from the standpoint of
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fan RPMs and noise and energy to capture
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the same number of particles as these
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restrictive HEPA that say you know 99.97
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single pass efficiency and the only
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reason the whole industry ended up at
00:09:55
you know he age 13 is because they
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glommed on to marketing this 99 9.97%
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number which isn't even the right metric
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for a room purifier amen so with hea to
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get a high cadr what what do you
00:10:10
actually need to do there's two
00:10:11
directions they can go right they can
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put a big honken fan on it that's really
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powerful and really loud or they can
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make a big honken filter which it just
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takes up a lot of room in your room and
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it's going to be really expensive to buy
00:10:24
replacements for it right that's how
00:10:26
they can make it either quieter you know
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or powerful or both right and there's
00:10:31
some serious trade-offs there in terms
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of user experience and costs well said
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really well said isn't it true also that
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many HEPA air purifier Brands don't even
00:10:40
report cadr in the first place so when
00:10:44
you look at websites for HEPA air
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cleaners yes some of them don't
00:10:47
advertise the catter right and there's
00:10:51
probably a reason for that and it's not
00:10:53
that they don't know the catter for that
00:10:56
device so that's just something that
00:10:58
cons should be aware of right I say cadr
00:11:02
when and Rob say CER we both mean clean
00:11:04
air delivery rate and there are a few he
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brands that do report cadr among those
00:11:10
can we trust that number or is that
00:11:12
number a little misleading a lot of the
00:11:14
time there is a single number reported
00:11:17
and when that's the case the number is
00:11:18
going to most likely be from the highest
00:11:22
and the loudest setting that's available
00:11:25
on that device right because that's
00:11:26
going to give them the biggest air
00:11:27
cleaning that's when the fans moving the
00:11:28
fast so what do I do to counteract the
00:11:31
influence of deceptive marketing I go up
00:11:33
to my proverbial rooftop and I shout
00:11:36
about the research in this study by
00:11:37
Porto at all they measured the
00:11:39
performance of this DIY Cory rosenal box
00:11:41
which was basically just a box fan and
00:11:43
MF 13 filters in both home office and
00:11:45
classroom settings for particles greater
00:11:47
than 0.5 microns figure 2A shows that at
00:11:50
the lowest speed its clean air delivery
00:11:53
rate is around 600 CFM which is really
00:11:55
high um that's much higher than the two
00:11:58
commercially available HEPA air
00:11:59
purifiers that they tested on maximum
00:12:02
speed not only that but the CR box saved
00:12:05
money relative to the heas the lowspeed
00:12:07
CR box was around 1110th the initial
00:12:10
cost of the HEPA per unit of air cleaned
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figure 3B shows cadr at different
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particle sizes the heas are in the Blues
00:12:18
and the CR boxes are in the warm colors
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as you can see the cadr barely varies
00:12:23
across particle size and the small
00:12:25
variation that does exist below 7
00:12:27
microns is consistent between
00:12:29
and the CR box so the murf 13 DIY air
00:12:33
purifiers were still effective across a
00:12:35
range of particle sizes I'll delve into
00:12:37
that later when I talk about ultra fine
00:12:39
particles moving on noise levels of both
00:12:42
the CR box and the HEPA were high that's
00:12:45
because the CR box used a box fan there
00:12:47
are quieter fans that these researchers
00:12:50
could have used more on that later our
00:12:52
next study is by SRI Krishna at all who
00:12:54
tested a bunch of DIY air purifier
00:12:57
configurations against Best in Class
00:12:59
HEPA air purifiers I'm going to focus
00:13:01
specifically on their CR box
00:13:03
configuration here versus the best HEPA
00:13:06
here this hea on a high speed had a
00:13:08
significantly lower cadr than the MV 13
00:13:11
CR box at its lowest speed I'm sensing a
00:13:13
trend this was for particles AT3 microns
00:13:16
which is the most penetrating particle
00:13:19
size or mpps meaning the size of
00:13:21
particle that filters are the worst at
00:13:23
capturing so this size of particle is
00:13:26
good to use in testing because it tells
00:13:27
us the worst case scenario Moving On The
00:13:31
Upfront cost of the components of the CR
00:13:33
box was around five times cheaper than
00:13:35
the hea like this video if you're
00:13:37
starting to see why I'm angry here's a
00:13:40
figure that shows efficiency in the red
00:13:42
line yes even though the capture
00:13:44
efficiency of the HEPA was higher than
00:13:46
the CR box the CR box still clean the
00:13:49
air better here's a good quote about
00:13:51
that concept by Joey Fox an HVAC
00:13:53
engineer who writes amazing IAQ articles
00:13:56
some of which I Linked In the
00:13:58
description for you a CR box uses MV 13
00:14:01
filters which can only remove 60 to 80%
00:14:04
of those particles but the fan on the CR
00:14:06
box is much bigger and can clean more
00:14:08
air all you care about in the end is the
00:14:11
total rate at which the air is cleaned
00:14:13
so what the CR box lacks in efficiency
00:14:16
it makes up for an airf flow before I
00:14:18
move on I want to point out something
00:14:19
interesting the HEPA units efficiency
00:14:22
actually measured lower than
00:14:24
99.97% which is the expected efficiency
00:14:26
of HEPA more on that later this third
00:14:29
study by holder at all demonstrates that
00:14:31
DIY air purifiers can even be effective
00:14:34
at capturing Wildfire smoke which mostly
00:14:36
measures3 microns this murf 13 CR box
00:14:40
vastly outperformed a commercial HEPA a
00:14:43
purifier in terms of cadr and also
00:14:45
initial cost per cadr and cadr per watt
00:14:50
interestingly the researchers found that
00:14:52
filters that are saturated with Wildfire
00:14:54
smoke perform much worse in terms of
00:14:57
cadr so remember to change your filters
00:15:00
frequently during Wildfire season here's
00:15:02
an amazing review that compiles a lot of
00:15:04
the available data about DIY air
00:15:06
purifiers it's laid out really
00:15:08
conveniently so you can see lots of
00:15:10
metrics in one place for the studies I
00:15:11
just went over and others basically DIY
00:15:14
air purifiers consistently Beat
00:15:16
commercial heas in terms of cadr cost
00:15:18
per cadr and cadr per watt so with their
00:15:21
great airflow these DIY CR boxes clean
00:15:24
the air faster cost less UPF front and
00:15:26
use less electricity even though they
00:15:29
use MF 13 filters which are less
00:15:31
efficient than HEPA so in the studies I
00:15:32
just went over we saw that MF 13 filters
00:15:35
can capture fine particles as small as3
00:15:37
microns but what about ultrafine
00:15:40
particles which are .1 microns or fewer
00:15:43
so let me explain one argument that
00:15:45
people who are brainwashed into touting
00:15:47
HEPA air purifiers repeatedly make is
00:15:49
that HEPA can capture ultra fine
00:15:51
particles while other filters can it is
00:15:54
true that HEPA filters can capture
00:15:56
ultrafine particles in fact HEPA filters
00:15:59
are better at capturing ultrafine
00:16:00
particles than they are at capturing
00:16:01
slightly larger particles this goes back
00:16:04
to the concept I mentioned earlier of
00:16:05
most penetrating particle size or mpps
00:16:09
which is around3 microns to recap
00:16:11
particles around3 microns are the most
00:16:14
difficult for hea to capture and HEPA is
00:16:16
better at capturing particles both
00:16:18
larger and smaller than3 but see the
00:16:21
thing they don't tell you is that Merve
00:16:23
filters exhibit the same phenomenon
00:16:25
figure five from AI at all shows the
00:16:27
size resolved remov efficiencies for
00:16:29
Merve rated HVAC filters so how
00:16:32
efficient they are at different particle
00:16:33
sizes on the x-axis you can see the
00:16:36
particle size from
00:16:37
0.001 microns which is well into the
00:16:40
ultra fine range to 10 microns or a
00:16:42
larger particle on the Y AIS is removal
00:16:45
efficiency so the higher the better on
00:16:48
top you can see HEPA which is of course
00:16:49
the most efficient of all filters near
00:16:52
100% no matter the particle size but
00:16:53
being the most efficient at smaller and
00:16:55
larger sizes than mpps as we went over
00:16:58
but see the same phenomenon can be
00:17:00
observed for all of the Merv rated HVAC
00:17:02
filters MV 13 isn't in this figure but
00:17:05
we have M 12 and 14 so we can
00:17:07
extrapolate especially MV 16 and mve 14
00:17:10
and even MV 12 all approach near 100%
00:17:13
efficiency for ultrafine particles so
00:17:16
HEPA is not needed for ultrain particle
00:17:18
capture HVAC filters can do it too and
00:17:21
see here that Steven Z all demonstrates
00:17:23
a similar phenomenon in figure three for
00:17:25
the Merv 13 filter see but these studies
00:17:28
measured single pass efficiency for a
00:17:31
standalone HVAC filter what about in the
00:17:33
context of a DIY air purifier with four
00:17:36
filters Myers at all demonstrates that
00:17:38
indeed cadr of a CR box in the brown is
00:17:41
lowest at the mpps of around3 microns
00:17:44
and increases slightly as we get more
00:17:47
ultra fine down to 01 microns I'd like
00:17:49
to point out that these researchers
00:17:51
didn't measure particles as Ultra ultra
00:17:53
fine as the previous study and if they
00:17:56
had I'd expect to see cadr increasing
00:17:58
more on on the Left End as the particles
00:18:00
get more ultrafine even so the data
00:18:03
shows that CR boxes can absolutely
00:18:05
capture ultrafine particulate and just
00:18:07
like HEPA they're even better at it
00:18:09
remember earlier when I mentioned that
00:18:10
the HEPA air purifier from Shri Krishna
00:18:12
at all had an efficiency lower than
00:18:16
99.97% its expected efficiency this may
00:18:19
be because on turbo speed the speed used
00:18:22
to Market their cadrs most HEPA units
00:18:25
are running at a velocity much higher
00:18:27
than the velocity used to test their
00:18:29
filtration efficiency in this context
00:18:32
the faster air flows through a filter
00:18:34
AKA face velocity the more particles can
00:18:37
penetrate through it without getting
00:18:39
captured we don't want penetration and
00:18:41
indeed this study by Chang at all shows
00:18:43
that penetration decreases as air
00:18:46
velocity drops especially for ultra fine
00:18:48
particles interestingly so the fact that
00:18:51
low velocity lets fewer particles
00:18:53
penetrate is good for CR boxes because
00:18:56
generally velocity will be much lower in
00:18:58
a CR box than a HEPA unit this is
00:19:01
because CR boxes tend to have a much
00:19:03
larger filter surface area so they have
00:19:05
four filters that's a lot of area also I
00:19:08
especially love this study because it
00:19:09
used 3M filt treat filters the best HVAC
00:19:12
filters right now according to numerous
00:19:14
testers one being the 3D handyman so
00:19:17
it's pretty clear that CR boxes are
00:19:18
amazing but can they protect us from
00:19:21
viruses this is a presentation by Dr
00:19:24
Katherine Ratliff from the EPA in which
00:19:25
a non-pathogenic virus was aerosolized
00:19:28
in simulated saliva in a large 3,000
00:19:31
cubic foot chamber the results the murf
00:19:35
13 CR box Drew Down 97% of Bio aerosols
00:19:38
in 30 minutes and 99.4 in 60 far better
00:19:43
than control which was the CR box turned
00:19:46
off cadr was 234 CFM so yeah I mean DIY
00:19:50
air purifiers can protect us from
00:19:52
viruses too so now we know that CR boxes
00:19:54
leave HEPA a purifiers in the dust in
00:19:57
terms of initial cost Energy Efficiency
00:19:59
and of course clean air delivery rate no
00:20:02
matter the particle size however both
00:20:05
HEPA units and CR boxes can be a bit
00:20:07
noisy is there a way we can retain the
00:20:10
high cadr of CR boxes but use a quieter
00:20:13
fan than a box fan remember Wayne and
00:20:16
Rob from earlier they've figured out a
00:20:18
way at their company clean air kits they
00:20:20
make a line of air purifiers that are
00:20:22
quieter and more energy efficient even
00:20:24
than standard CR boxes while still
00:20:27
retaining some of the design featur Fe
00:20:28
that make CR boxes so effective in terms
00:20:31
of cadr the key PC fans can you guys
00:20:35
talk about how PC fan CR boxes can save
00:20:38
hundreds in electricity and filter
00:20:40
replacement cost compared to large heas
00:20:43
with equal clean air delivery PC fans
00:20:45
have been you know optimized by very
00:20:47
competitive industry for quietness and
00:20:50
Energy Efficiency and uh we found that
00:20:53
the 120 mm size seems to be the the most
00:20:57
efficient size and then we went through
00:20:58
through all the brands to see which was
00:21:01
the quietest and most coste effective
00:21:03
and on this chart you know was per occup
00:21:06
on this axis and dollars per occupant
00:21:08
we're just kind of off the charts way
00:21:10
more efficient we're under $20 per
00:21:13
occupant and this is assuming continuous
00:21:15
operation throughout the year and and uh
00:21:18
you know a filter change every year and
00:21:20
sampling of other heas is costing twice
00:21:24
as much and often using uh several times
00:21:27
as much power to do the same thing
00:21:30
amazing wow so can you talk about your
00:21:32
process for selecting the specific PC
00:21:35
fans that you ultimately went with we
00:21:37
took even from you know the the Dozen
00:21:40
leading models of of static pressure PC
00:21:42
fans we we evaluated all those in terms
00:21:46
of of noise and the prices they were
00:21:48
available at us and we settled on The
00:21:50
Cooler Master brand for most of our
00:21:53
products they have these CLE flow and
00:21:55
Mobius fans and they are just a couple
00:21:58
debels quieter than their competition at
00:22:02
at these operating points and they're
00:22:04
and they're really well built too
00:22:05
they're they're robust and they are UL
00:22:08
registered so that allowed us to pursue
00:22:11
ul507 certification and that's going to
00:22:14
you know help us get in again into
00:22:16
classrooms and and Commercial settings
00:22:19
all right so Wayne um how do clean air
00:22:21
kits compare with CR boxes uh our
00:22:24
products are the the blue stars on this
00:22:26
chart this is a sample CR box they can
00:22:30
be anywhere from 250 to 400 by some by
00:22:34
some measurements on their low and
00:22:35
medium speed and then if you turn the
00:22:37
box fan up to high it would be up here 6
00:22:40
or 800 CFM really really good except you
00:22:43
know on high they're really really loud
00:22:45
too this chart was originally put
00:22:47
together early in the pandemic like 2021
00:22:51
and it's got all these he hea Brands you
00:22:53
want to be up in this corner as far as
00:22:55
you can on the chart because you're
00:22:57
you're getting high CER and low cost and
00:23:00
you can see we're we're kind of leading
00:23:03
the front the March toward that corner
00:23:05
compared to all the heas and the
00:23:08
remarkable thing is we're doing it while
00:23:10
being quieter than all of them and if
00:23:14
you took these all these heas in red and
00:23:17
green and you tried you turn down their
00:23:19
speed till they were in the blue range
00:23:22
of 40 50 dbel speed then you'd be
00:23:25
measuring them you know they're going to
00:23:26
again drop in half in their CER
00:23:28
performance they're all going to be
00:23:29
clustered way down here in short we can
00:23:32
match the catter of a CR box on Lower
00:23:36
medium with our range of models with 5
00:23:39
to n or 10 PC fans we're going to use
00:23:42
like 1 the energy of the CR box and
00:23:45
we're going to be uh at least 10 DB
00:23:48
quieter one convenient feature about
00:23:50
clean air kits that I wanted to mention
00:23:52
is that when the power goes off and then
00:23:54
goes back on again clean air kits are so
00:23:56
simple that they'll automatically turn
00:23:58
back back on when the power goes back on
00:24:00
next Wayne from clean air kits is going
00:24:01
to talk about a deeply informative
00:24:03
experiment where he compared the
00:24:05
luggable XXL from clean air kits to a
00:24:08
HEPA unit for viral sized particles this
00:24:10
was a well-rated well-regarded popular
00:24:13
commercial HEPA unit both the luggable
00:24:15
XXL and the HEPA unit have cadrs of 400
00:24:18
CFM so they have the same cadr so how do
00:24:23
other aspects of their performances
00:24:25
compare Wayne they're both doing what
00:24:28
they said they're doing 400 catter
00:24:29
they're bringing the particles down
00:24:31
overall it's the same but the PC fans
00:24:34
are doing this with about 46 47 dbel of
00:24:38
noise through their Merv 13 and using 15
00:24:41
watts of electricity the heas on turbo
00:24:45
64 DB almost 20 DB louder on turbo that
00:24:49
you know sounds like a little mini jet
00:24:51
engine next to you and 49 Watts three
00:24:54
times as much power to do this so this
00:24:57
is a you know practical example our rule
00:24:59
of thumb is if you're buying a hea and
00:25:01
it has a catter rating chances are in
00:25:04
practice you're going to get half the
00:25:06
cat out of that by the time you turn it
00:25:08
down to medium where it's below 50 DBS
00:25:11
in tolerable so we show that in this
00:25:13
chart we turn that that hea down to half
00:25:17
and it's its rate of draw down fell in
00:25:19
half instead of getting 4.5 a it was now
00:25:23
getting only 2.4 a so to get it back up
00:25:27
to 400 CER CFM you have to buy two of
00:25:29
them and run them on medium I'm going to
00:25:31
point out an unexpected finding here the
00:25:33
luggable draw down was much cleaner than
00:25:35
the HEPA units indicating that the
00:25:37
luggable with its PC fans facing
00:25:40
different directions more effectively
00:25:41
dispersed clean air throughout the space
00:25:44
so that leads us to the ultimate
00:25:46
question which air purifier should you
00:25:48
get well you have three options option
00:25:50
one you can buy from clean air kits I
00:25:52
have three of their bris boxes and I
00:25:54
absolutely love them clean air kits are
00:25:56
also reasonably priced so you can buy bu
00:25:58
more of them if you need to cover more
00:26:00
space in your house clean air kits even
00:26:02
has prettier ones for the aesthetically
00:26:04
sensitive Among Us option two you could
00:26:06
check out clean a stars.com which is a
00:26:09
website that compiles data for tons of
00:26:11
air purifiers and has a helpful
00:26:14
selection tool there are some HEPA units
00:26:16
on there that are actually decent like
00:26:17
the smart Air Blast but they're more
00:26:19
expensive overall option three you could
00:26:22
build one yourself what option would I
00:26:24
recommend I'd recommend buying from
00:26:26
clean air kits because the PC fan
00:26:29
designs they use are the best balance of
00:26:31
cadr noise cost and Energy Efficiency
00:26:34
that I know of given all the data I've
00:26:36
shared it's clear that a CR box type
00:26:38
design with MV 13 HVAC filters is your
00:26:41
best bet not HEPA whether you buy from
00:26:44
clean air kits or build it yourself if
00:26:46
you are leaning towards building one
00:26:47
yourself you might be wondering which
00:26:49
design to build some of you might even
00:26:51
be curious about my own DIY air purifier
00:26:54
design this one right here the one that
00:26:56
brought many of you to my channel I
00:26:58
still still think this is a great option
00:27:00
It's relatively easy to build quiet
00:27:02
relative to designs that use box fans
00:27:04
and Powerful to this day I still have
00:27:06
one in my bedroom and this one in my
00:27:08
office and they keep particle counts
00:27:10
super low the AC Infinity fan in my
00:27:13
design also generates even more CFM than
00:27:15
a standard box fan according to the
00:27:17
specs as well as my own testing full
00:27:20
disclosure though I have not tested my
00:27:22
design cadr because it's a fairly
00:27:24
involved process however my design is
00:27:26
pretty similar to standard CR boxes
00:27:28
which tend to have cadrs of around 400
00:27:31
CFM or above so I imagine my design has
00:27:33
a similar cadr that is just a theory but
00:27:36
it is supported by the following
00:27:38
findings from holder at all the cadr was
00:27:40
minimally impacted by different
00:27:42
approaches to attach the filters to the
00:27:44
fan showing that DIY air cleaner
00:27:46
performance may be largely independent
00:27:49
from how the user constructs them still
00:27:51
I don't want to be a hypocrite I do plan
00:27:52
on testing its cadr at some point and
00:27:55
until I do take my words with a grain of
00:27:57
salt or did I say a grain of particulate
00:28:00
before you do get an air purifier please
00:28:02
keep this in mind make sure it cadr is
00:28:05
high enough for the particular space
00:28:07
you'll be putting it in there are a few
00:28:08
ways to do this but the easiest and
00:28:10
quickest is ah's 2/3 rule which states
00:28:14
that the cadr of your air cleaner should
00:28:16
be equal to at least 2/3 of the room's
00:28:19
area for example a room with the
00:28:21
dimensions of 12 ft by 15 ft has an area
00:28:23
of 180 ft 12 * 15 so use an air cleaner
00:28:27
with with a cadr of at least 120 CFM and
00:28:31
that's from 180 * 66 or 2/3 for Wildfire
00:28:36
smoke though cadr should be equal to the
00:28:38
size of the room in square feet so 180
00:28:41
CFM in this case another great sizing
00:28:43
method is ashray 241 if you're concerned
00:28:46
about infectious aerosols in the
00:28:48
interest of conciseness I won't go over
00:28:50
that in this video now I'm going to give
00:28:52
my opinion on sizing for homes I
00:28:54
actually prefer cadr to be closer to
00:28:57
twice the room area because I'm
00:28:59
environmentally sensitive you can use
00:29:01
multiple air purifiers to achieve this
00:29:03
for example in my open kitchen/living
00:29:06
room space which is around 500 squ ft I
00:29:09
have three brisk boxes from clean air
00:29:11
kits Each of which has a cadr of 300 CFM
00:29:15
so 300 * 3 equals a total of 900 CFM so
00:29:19
900 is almost twice the room area of 500
00:29:22
that's what you want to shoot for again
00:29:24
this is just my opinion of what works
00:29:26
for me as someone with bad environmental
00:29:28
sensitivities this method also applies
00:29:30
to those living in homes with really bad
00:29:32
air quality like if you have a bad mold
00:29:35
problem and you're not able to leave so
00:29:38
yeah with cadr twice the room area your
00:29:40
air is going to be a lot cleaner now
00:29:42
Wayne from clean air kits is going to
00:29:44
talk about his pretty innovative air
00:29:46
cleaner layout strategy that's
00:29:48
especially useful for those who are
00:29:49
concerned with viral Transmission in
00:29:51
their homes so you guys have an air
00:29:54
cleaner called the exhaler on that does
00:29:56
something especially unique unique that
00:29:58
I don't think most people are even aware
00:30:01
that air purifiers can do can you talk
00:30:03
about it what it's going to do is
00:30:06
basically create so much suction that
00:30:08
the people surrounding it 3/4 of their
00:30:11
breath is just going to go through and
00:30:12
instantly get filtered before it even
00:30:14
spreads into the room so this is
00:30:17
nearfield Source control of about the
00:30:19
level of uh cloth or surgical mask that
00:30:23
you know most people wore in the
00:30:25
pandemic not as safe as if they were
00:30:26
wearing their n95 but it's still you
00:30:29
know a two or 4X jump in safety
00:30:31
instantly for everybody in the room and
00:30:33
it's so quiet it doesn't bother anybody
00:30:35
I can work with this thing I can have a
00:30:37
meeting with this thing right next to me
00:30:39
and I can put it on my nightstand
00:30:41
there's no other hea on the market
00:30:43
that's quiet enough to do this it's
00:30:45
another 3 or 4X margin of safety over
00:30:47
just the overall room air cleaning in
00:30:50
the bigger rooms like your dining room
00:30:52
your open areas will have either like a
00:30:55
luggable XL or um a tower of power or an
00:30:59
in table that has you know 7 to 10
00:31:01
sickle flow fans that are covering these
00:31:04
large spaces of 500 to th000 square feet
00:31:07
and then putting acceleron on the
00:31:09
nightstands in each bedroom it's big
00:31:11
enough to to do about 5 AC in the room
00:31:14
just as a room purifier uh especially if
00:31:16
you put it on both nightstands it's
00:31:18
going to pull your your breath as you're
00:31:21
sleeping immediately going to pull it in
00:31:22
and clean it and pull it away from your
00:31:24
partner who's sleeping next to you we
00:31:26
did a cool video of this with a fog
00:31:28
machine when we have guests over for
00:31:31
dinner and sometimes even you know for
00:31:33
breakfast for ourselves we we'll put
00:31:34
acceleron on the dinner table the
00:31:36
sharing of breath across the table when
00:31:39
you have one of these present is greatly
00:31:41
reduced now I'm going to preemptively
00:31:43
address a couple questions that I
00:31:45
suspect you guys are going to ask me
00:31:46
question one are there situations where
00:31:49
the high single pass efficiency of HEPA
00:31:51
filters is actually useful absolutely
00:31:54
like if one space is dustier and another
00:31:56
space is cleaner heas help keep the dust
00:31:59
out of the cleaner space don't worry I'm
00:32:01
going to give you an example in HEPA
00:32:03
vacuums HEPA filters are crucial to keep
00:32:06
particles from the dusty floor from
00:32:07
being dispersed into the air question
00:32:09
two many commercial air purifiers have
00:32:12
activated carbon filters while CR box
00:32:15
slpc fan air purifiers generally don't
00:32:18
is this a big loss and like is activated
00:32:20
carbon as useful as people think in this
00:32:22
context or Joey fox has an amazing
00:32:25
answer for this in his article called
00:32:26
how to pick an air cleaner Linked In the
00:32:28
description carbon filters can remove
00:32:30
voccs ozone and odors they can
00:32:32
potentially be effective if sized
00:32:34
properly however air cleaners rarely
00:32:36
provide equivalent outdoor air delivery
00:32:38
rates for the carbon filters they also
00:32:40
become saturated over time and would
00:32:43
then become ineffective unfortunately
00:32:45
many portable air cleaners do not
00:32:46
provide clear information on the
00:32:48
longevity and effectiveness of their
00:32:50
carbon filters while carbon filters are
00:32:52
a harmless feature they may not
00:32:53
necessarily deliver the desired results
00:32:55
additionally carbon filters do not
00:32:57
remove particulate matter which includes
00:32:59
Airborne diseases therefore they have no
00:33:01
impact on addressing health concerns
00:33:02
related to viruses or other particulate
00:33:04
matter in general when dealing with
00:33:06
voc's and odors the most effective
00:33:08
approach is through ventilation by
00:33:10
supplying fresh outdoor air to the space
00:33:12
considering the uncertainty surrounding
00:33:14
the effectiveness of carbon filters they
00:33:15
are not something that should generally
00:33:17
be pursued but should not deter you from
00:33:20
purchasing the air purifier alt together
00:33:22
in that same article Joey also talks
00:33:24
about why prefilters and other features
00:33:26
may not be necessary hint they're trying
00:33:29
to take your money so yeah when it comes
00:33:30
to air purifiers there's a lot of really
00:33:33
bad advice out there I've gotten bad
00:33:35
advice even from people that I trust
00:33:37
let's never again let anyone manipulate
00:33:40
us into getting locked into a
00:33:41
proprietary system that profits from us
00:33:44
buying needlessly expensive filters and
00:33:46
replacing them too soon and that
00:33:48
sacrifices our health for their bottom
00:33:50
line this is why I call you guys my
00:33:52
fellow Renegades on this channel because
00:33:55
let's be Renegades let's divorce
00:33:56
ourselves from these broken systems that
00:33:59
manipulate us and profit off of us the
00:34:01
reason why I'm so angry is because us
00:34:04
having the right air purifiers is
00:34:05
literally a matter of life and death as
00:34:08
these studies and many others show in
00:34:10
the figure on the left the higher the
00:34:12
particulate concentration in a given
00:34:14
City the higher its mortality rate on
00:34:17
the right ambient pm and poor indoor air
00:34:20
quality are now among the most common
00:34:22
causes of death right up there with high
00:34:24
blood pressure poor diet smoking and
00:34:27
alcohol use through the years I've
00:34:29
bought numerous brands of overpriced and
00:34:31
ineffective HEPA units now that I know
00:34:34
about clean air delivery rate my days of
00:34:36
being scammed are over it's my hope that
00:34:39
this video gets shared enough to reach
00:34:40
some IEPs and helps them share
00:34:43
information that benefits their
00:34:44
customers I know you learned something
00:34:46
today so please like this video if you
00:34:48
did and subscribe for more content like
00:34:50
this please comment as well I want to
00:34:52
hear your thoughts I want to hear your
00:34:54
questions I want to hear from you if
00:34:56
you're able to donate to my channel
00:34:57
please do so at the link in the
00:34:59
description and finally my fellow
00:35:01
Renegades I salute you
