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___ Should I tackle buiding a similar electronic air filter? ___

B

Blain

Lifer

I'm getting a quote for a Trane Heating/Air system tomorrow morning. With me being the tightwad that I am... I'm trying to shave $$ off the cost and still have a Cadillac system.
We have a dog and I'd like great air fitering with the system. I'm sure the Trane electronic filters aren't cheap. But they do look fairly simple in construction.

I've got enough electrical experience to at least shut the power off, before I work on a circuit. 😉 Should I tackle building a similar electronic air filter?

 
I'm sure it wouldn't look as pretty as Trane's. But with a DC transformer and some type of metal mesh screens, it looks pretty straight forward.

Sometimes it's a curse, being so cheap 😀 But other times it pays off big!
 
you need a circuit that can generate a few kilovolts of dc. can be done though the page says it positively charges the particles and most plans i've seen generates negative ions...

if you use a designt hat takes a low voltage dc input (say 9 volts) and uses a transformers to step it up and rectify it with diodes or pass it trhoguh a multiplier, it's usually safe but you need to be careful as to not have any large capacitance for the out and even if it's safe i wouldn't recommend touching it 😛 it hurts a lot, trust me i know. if you build one that multiplies directly wall socket that's more dangerous.

if you have not much experience workign w electronics, i dont recommend doing it
 
"Given that I've seen plenty of "pros" work on hot circuits, I'd say you don't know quite enough"

Do you know the flak I would have generated IF I would have admitted working on a hot circuit? 😛

So the Trane filter is generating many thousands of volts to charge the particles? I doubt that that's the case.
 
Originally posted by: Blain

So the Trane filter is generating many thousands of volts to charge the particles? I doubt that that's the case.
Click to expand...

As a matter of fact you need at least a couple thousand votes to generate the ions needed to charge the particles

Maybe you shouldn't work on this by yourself 🙂
 
"Maybe you shouldn't work on this by yourself"
But I've got deals pending in the For Sale/Trade forum. If I get whacked by high voltage, nobody would be around to see the deals through! 😀
 
Originally posted by: Blain

So the Trane filter is generating many thousands of volts to charge the particles? I doubt that that's the case.
Click to expand...

That's not what dighn says.

Let us know how much dust your 12 volt filter collects when you get it done.

(Sorry about the sarcasm)
 
I've spray painted using a 12v/50amp battery charger before. I know "charging" is a good thing... as Martha says. 🙂
 
A few thousand volts DC isn't going to kill you unless its @ .5 amps or something.

Hell, I've been shocked by about 25,000VDC. Yeah, it wakes you up. You don't wave the screwdriver around in the engine bay so much after that.. 😉
 
Originally posted by: rival
i think like .1mA can kill you

more people die from 120v ac receptacles than any other voltage
Click to expand...
Gee, that wouldn't be because that's the standard household voltage, would it? 😛


0.1mA will not kill you. That's 0.0001 amps.. lol.

I think it takes like 11mA directly to the heart to stop it.
 
Originally posted by: Eli
Originally posted by: rival
i think like .1mA can kill you

more people die from 120v ac receptacles than any other voltage
Click to expand...
Gee, that wouldn't be because that's the standard household voltage, would it? 😛


0.1mA will not kill you. That's 0.0001 amps.. lol.

I think it takes like 11mA directly to the heart to stop it.
Click to expand...

yes thats a factor, but most people dont take it as seriously as they should
 
Originally posted by: rival
Originally posted by: Eli
Originally posted by: rival
i think like .1mA can kill you

more people die from 120v ac receptacles than any other voltage
Click to expand...
Gee, that wouldn't be because that's the standard household voltage, would it? 😛


0.1mA will not kill you. That's 0.0001 amps.. lol.

I think it takes like 11mA directly to the heart to stop it.
Click to expand...

yes thats a factor, but most people dont take it as seriously as they should
Click to expand...

Well, I was just saying.. it wouldn't matter if we used 60v or 240v, the people that use a butterknife to get the toast unstuck deserve the Darwin. 😛
 
The major risks of electric shock are of muscle paralysis or development of an abnormal heart rhythm or cardiac arrest. The risks depend on current flow and duration of flow.

Below 0.5 mA, there is unlikely to be any effect.

At 30 mA, exposures less than 0.1 s, are unlikely to cause substantial harm.

At 100 mA, exposures of more than 0.1 s can potentially cause ventricular fibrillation (cardiac arrest) - risk about 1 in 20. Shorter durations could potentially cause breathing difficulties due to muscle paralysis.

At 1000 mA, even instantaneous (< 0.01s) shocks carries a 1 in 2 risk of cardiac arrest.

Voltages less than 50 V are considered "extra-safe low voltage" - it's very difficult to get a fatal shock from 50 V or less because the body's internal resistance limits the current to a low level (typically less than 30 mA).

The risk with high-voltage power supplies (even very low current supplies) is the problem of capacitance and stored charge. A typical air ioniser/filter uses about 6,000-10,000 volts. The current capability of the supplies are very low <1 mA, but at such a high voltage considerable charge can be stored within the capacitance of the circuit itself. Discharge of this stored charge could potentially develop currents of several hundred mA - with substantial safety implications.

Such a circuit is not one to be undertake by a beginner, nor by anyone without knowledge and experience of very high voltage circuits.
 
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