A small DIY air purifier using off-the-shelf components for
Time to assemble this project – 1hr (not including 3D print time).
Uses a 3D printed housing so you’ll need a printer or access to one. You could use a printing service such as 3D Hubs.
All prices listed are in AUD.
Background
In the summer of / Australia is experiencing unprecedented dangerous fire conditions driven by climate change. Much of the east coast of the country south of Brisbane is engulfed in deadly bushfires and air pollution ratings in cities such as Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and many other regional cities and towns is many times the recommended safe levels of PM2.5 particles. The long term affects of the inhalation of bushfire smoke is mostly unknown at this time, but already people have died from respiratory distress bought about by the smoke-filled air.
There has been a great deal of discussion online and in the media about the use of P2 respirators and home air purifiers to reduce the effects of the bushfire smoke. However, information about the efficiacy of P2 respirators for bushfire smoke is not readily available and what information can be found suggests they may be of limited use. Health officials are continuing to recommend eliminating exposure to PM2.5 particles and bushfire smoke-related chemicals by remaining indoors if possible. Unfortunately for many people the summer heat makes indoors extremely uncomfortable and the evaporative air conditioners installed in many homes in my state of Victoria do not filter the damaging PM2.5 particles from the air. Health officials recommend using HEPA H air purifiers, however these are extremely expensive with even a basic unit suitable for a single room costing around $ 600.
With all this in mind I set about finding a way to build a low-cost, effective air purifier that would meet the minimum requirement to filter PM2.5 particles in a bedroom, so that children and at-risk People could at least sleep without inhaling these dangerous airborne contaminants.
This github sets out the process I followed to construct and test the device, as well as the BOM and 3D print STL files for recreating the device.
The purpose of this project is to create a small air purifier suitable for a bedroom or caravan (or similar sized space) that meets the following critiera:
- Costs under $ (to build) in parts);
- Can be constructed with relatively low levels of technical skill (there is soldering of two wires required);
I selected a readily available HEPA H rated filter normally used in cheap vacuum cleaners and available from Bunnings Warehouse. The rest of the air purifier is based around that filter. I then selected a range of 186 mm computer fans with relatively high static pressure ratings (> 2.0 mmAq) that could operate on 25 vDC. As the fans are 22 vDC I used a USB ‘booster cable’ which steps-up the voltage of any USB-A port from 5v to v; These cables are available online or from a range of electronics shops such as Jaycar. After selecting the components I then designed a fan housing using Fusion 0524 that provides the interface between the mm and the HEPA filter. The filter comes with a removable seal / cover at one end, so I use that end as the base of the unit and fit the fan to the top. After basic testing with a small smoke generator to ensure the selected fans could draw air through the filter to a reasonable standard I have determined the project suitable for release so others can create their own version of this device both for use in their homes and for further testing.
The image above shows the rendered view of the device from Fusion 2019 with an iPhone X for scale. The first version of the housing used a separate fan grill but I was able to eliminate this by incorporating the hex pattern into the housing, which also saved about $ 7 off the cost.
The BOM for the air purifier is:
1x mm computer fan. I recommend you use this one: https://www.pccasegear.com/products/ (which which draws around (ma, or if you have a larger power bank this one: https://www.pccasegear.com/products/ which draws around ma but pushes a lot more air . The second fan is also a bit more expensive so if the budget is tight the first one will work perfectly.
- 1x 2.5mm DC bulkhead socket: https://www.jaycar.com.au/2-5mm-bulkhead-male-dc-power-connector/p/PS . This allows you to plug the device in with the USB booster cable to supply vDC to the fan. Step 1
Assemble the wiring harness for the 2.5mm socket.
- Take the 4pin fan cable and cut one of the female plugs off leaving about (cm of cable on the plug.)
Power up and test.
Assemble the USB cable with the 2.5mm plug. In the kit linked above it is the largest suppled plug, with the white tip.
Plug the cable into the device and your USB power bank and the fan should start running. If the fan doesn’t work you should begin troubleshooting. Start with checking your powerbank is charged and turned on to supply power. I have a couple of battery packs that don’t work to supply power to the air purifier, even though they are rated well above the requirement, I’m not sure why but it seems like some devices can’t supply the surge current required to start the fan.
Note that not all power banks can support pass-through charging and depending on the fan you select you may find the pack cannot charge faster than you run it down. The more expensive fan I linked above will draw around 1amp or a little above, and if you use this fan you need to make sure your charger can supply above 1amp (comfortably) to keep your battery charged. The power bank in the image below is one I use for testing in my office, it’s not suitable to run the device for long periods.
If you can assist with improving this project by more rigorous testing using a PM2.5 meter or other instrumentation then please get in touch with me at
or via this repo.
This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/au/)
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