Cheapest carbon filter (again)

[JustCurious79]

Had a flash when I woke up an hour ago. What of I would buy only the carbon filter and fit it to my vacuum cleaner? My common sense says it could work since they evidently sell carbon filters specifically for vacuum cleaners. Only possible problem could be the electric motor, since it's not supposed to run this way.

 

[JJ Bones]

I'd go for the fan, vacuum cleaners can take up to 1400 watts to run.

 

[tommyb88]

hope u dont have a dog he we will be going wild 24/7 haha

 

[JustCurious79]

1200 watts says mine. I'd go with that. It also has a know where you can steplessly adjust the power from almost nothing to full. At minimum it doesn't make much more noise then my desktop computer.
I think I'll give this a try after all.

 

[KarlJay]

I saw a YouTube video where someone simple attached a carbon filter on to the front of a box fan. It was the furnace type filter and didn't cost much.

Also, I remember a video from one of the big $$ companies and they talked about the speed of the air and size of the carbon. Based on what he was saying, your air speed would probably be too high with a vac.

The way I look at it is that almost any indoor grow is going to have to vent the air. You have at least 3 reasons to vent: CO2, Heat, Odor.

With 1 properly setup fan/vent/filter, you can take care of all 3 of this issues.

 

[JustCurious79]

I looked at some examples of vacuum cleaners on the net, and from what I can tell they move air well within the rating of even a small carbon filter. And that is at full power, in my case I can use only a fraction of that. We're talking about very rudimentary physics but it's difficult to say anything without your reference.
We'll see. I'm running on budget here, and as lovely it would be to buy everything I need and want brand-new and top-of-the-line, that is not an option I have right now. As it looks now I'll give my idea a chance but also mind what KarlJay says.

 

[KarlJay]

Actually I was guessing about the speed of the vacuum, no real data. On second thought, fans have much larger area, whereas a vacuum draws thru an opening about 2" vs say 6 or 8" so that alone would slow it down a bunch, so it might just work out great.

I understand the budget issues , have them myself.

So far, I've built my own clone machine, light systems, got 2nd hand fans and rewired them...

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Even if the vacuum was used on low power that would still be hundreds of watts per hour & the hike in electricbill would be counter productive in the long run.

In 2 months of using a vacuum for an extractor fan & rise in electric bill that extra cost could fund an inline exhuast fan !!!!!


Also are vacuums ment to run 24/7... their is a chance of over heating & fire risk.



You could use odour removing gels as an alternative such as ONA etc in the short term & that cheap 6" or 8" fans could be used along with PC fans.


How To Build an Inexpensive Carbon Air Scrubber?

How do I Control Odor with Ozonators?

DIY Can-Filter

 

[KarlJay]

On that note, HomeDepot and Lowes have inline 'booster' fans starting at about $30. I got one that's about 225 CFM, but they sell both larger and stronger ones.

225 CFM isn't very strong, but I'm using it just to pull air from another room into the grow room for fresh/cool air. I doubt the $30 version is enough to pull much through a filter.

Another idea is to use the 8" or 10" fan and adapt it down to 6" or 4"

Total cost should be in the $40~$60 ballpark.

Another option is the 2nd hand stores. I got a 3 speed box fan for free because the blade was broken.
The motor works great, I'll adapt a fan blade to it and it'll move some big air!

People throw away many things that have fans/motors in them.