Filtering smoky air

BywaysNW

Sometimes small spaces are the best spaces.
We brought along our small room air filter when
we came to the Oregon coast to get away from
the wildfire smoke.  The air was bad here too,
but the filter kept the air inside at healthy levels
with no trouble.  

ChanW

Good plan. Might be a good reason to have a tiny house in the West.

VictoriaP

Due to asthma and lung damage post-pneumonia, I bought my first portable HEPA air purifier during wildfire season three years ago. It’s run daily since then.

Germ Guardian: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G7VNO86/ Does an excellent job with a 12x15 room, so I’m pretty sure it can handle either Tab model. I have their bigger units as well and love them. (I do not use the UV light function, just HEPA filtering.)

One catch: AC current, 37 watts on low, closer to 50 on high, as measured by my Goal Zero Yeti 400. Might be worth looking to see if a good quality 12v version is out there for boondockers who haven’t upgraded their trailer battery yet and/or don’t have inverters.

jkjenn

Sometimes you need one at the CG....

VictoriaP

jkjenn said:

Sometimes you need one at the CG....

I was thinking the same thing. Not finding much in the way of a good 12v option though. I *really* need to upgrade my battery setup next year...

Tiwi

Did you try an air purifier? It might be really compact. I use Coway AP-1512HH. It's nice, small and works pretty well, the air is clean and no smell.

 

DougH

I'm trying the small 12" tall 100 CADR HiMox H13 filter for the T@B, plugged into a cheap 300W inverter for when I don't want the higher standby wattage of the coffee making inverter all night. I'm not sure H13 HEPA is really any better than H11 HEPA, but it supposedly grabs more and smaller particulates... which also probably means replacing the filters more often... especially for smoky campsites. Levoit and Medify also make small H13 models with up to 200 CADR, but that may be overkill for a 320 / 400 sized space.  Another downside of the HiMox is the app is WiFi instead of Bluetooth, and Victron and my fridge etc. aren't all integrated with Alexa or Google Home yet. But it's one of the few small H13 purifiers with a built in air quality sensor. So I know to hold my breath if it shows red on Auto.

https://www.himox.com/products/air-purifier-h06

They make a new shorter 8" tall 2W USB powered HEPA filter if battery power sipping is a priority, but how many times it cleans the T@B air volume per hour is bound to be much lower.

https://www.himox.com/new-arrivals/Air Purifier H07

BywaysNW

Our small room air filter from home runs on a regular AC outlet, so we only use it when we are hooked up to shore power. Which has been always, so far.

CrabTab

Can you place a filter over the roof fan and push fresher air into the T@B? 

BywaysNW

Interesting idea, Crab Tab.  Do you mean pushing or pulling? Would the filter go inside or outside? Would it be a HEPA filter? How would it be attached? There's a tension between needing fresh air and needing clean air, because filters have a lot more work to do if they have a constant supply of dirty outdoor air. We only use our filter when purpleair.com shows air quality near us to be over 25, and we keep the trailer closed up, just airing it out now and then until the outdoor air quality drops. Our little air quality monitor tells us that works.

CrabTab

Several comments in this discussion lamented the fact that  purchased air cleaners rely on AC power @BywaysNW. My first thought was that the roof fan is 12V DC and solves that problem when boondocking.

Usually we use our roof vent fan to pull humidity out of our T@B and draw in fresh air from a cracked window. It seems to me that you don't want to draw unfiltered smoke filled air in to the trailer, so reverse the flow and push it through a filter and in to the T@B. I realize that this will not be a great volume of air and don't have enough knowledge in this area to calculate. Still, some filtered air is better than none.

I suppose the filter media would need to be HEPA, or whatever is most effective against smoke, maybe PM2.5 or KN95 media type material (just guessing here).

BywaysNW

Here's our room filter and air quality monitor.

Edited for photo resizing - Please remember to resize your photos.  https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/47/what-size-should-my-posted-forum-photos-be#latest  Sharon - Moderator

BywaysNW

This Westinghouse 1804 HEPA filter runs for 8 hours on a rechargeable lithium-ion battery.  https://www.westinghousecleanair.com/1804

pthomas745

With my Kill-A-Watt this morning, my Coway 1512 (same at the one pictured above) on Speed 2 was using only 8 watts.  Sounds pretty do-able for the trailer on 12V.  I'll test it with my Victron and an inverter in the trailer later.

These things are really just (very nice) fans, and they don't seem to use much power.  Speed 2 would keep the trailer clean, I'm certain.  And, as a nice side effect, the air drawn through the filter comes out the top of the unit, and the air comes down from the ceiling.  So, clean air and a nice fan as a bonus.

BywaysNW

I couldn't tell from the ad whether it had to run on a standard 120 v outlet.  Apparently not, correct?

pthomas745

Results for the Coway 1512, using a couple of inverters in the trailer.  Upper left photo is trailer, battery switch off, disconnected from power, showing only -.24 amp of parasitic drain. The Coway was run on the fan level 1.  Just doing simple math, it looks like the Coway on low would use about .50 amps per hour.  The "efficiency loss" of the inverter raises that up to about .75 to 1.00 amp per hour.

Upper right is the Coway on a 300 watt "ordinary" inverter.  Of the extra .64 of an amp, a full .25 was the extra draw of the inverter.

Lower left is the Coway on a 300 watt pure sine wave inverter.  Of the 1.17 amps, a full .70 of an amp was the draw of the inverter!

Lower right is the Coway on an "ordinary" 200 watt inverter.  This inverter also registered a .25 of an amp for its draw. 

Even on Level 1 fan, the Coway produced a nice fan effect through the trailer, since it shoots the clean air up and the teardrop shape moves that air around nicely.  At about an amp per hour it seems pretty effective in such a small space.  I bet a smaller unit with a HEPA filter would be even more effective.

Today I learned that inverters suck up more power than I thought, even these "small" ones. 

Verna

@pthomas745, and your findings are why I have a 200 watt pure sine wave inverter for my satellite TV receiver. I discovered the 2000 watt inverter in the 400 drew a lot when running, so I resorted to purchasing the smaller 200 watt. I could not see any serious power draw ftom the 200, so I could (and did!) watch basketball games to my heart’s content!

I never did attempt to charge my electric assist bike’s battery on the 2000 watt inverter, choosing to grab an electrical hookup in the office or the couple of times I had electrical service.  This battery took 4 to 6 hrs on 120V service to charge and I knew I would not be able to replace that much power from the batteries, no matter how sunny the day. 

I could charge my DeWalt drill/fan/saws batteries on the 2000 watt inverter because it was less than an hour for quick charging. On a sunny day, I never missed this power draw from the batteries. 

pthomas745

I think we saw the 400 inverters (1200 watts?) using up 1.2 amps or something just in standby.  I knew there was an "efficiency" loss, but the .25 of an amp on this small appliance is almost 50 percent.  I guess it is very important to try to match the inverter to the device.

Denny16

Yes, inverters should be loaded to about 70-80 percent of rated capacity for most efficient use.  For a small 10-50 watt appliance try using a smaller DC plug in style inverter, that your can connect to the 12VDC plug in the TaB to run smaller appliances.

Cheers

BywaysNW

I charge my drill batteries at home.