10 Fundamentals Of Air Purification That Could Save Your Life

Watching the horrors of the fires in California is making more people than usual think about air quality and what to do about it in an emergency situation. Some of these people don’t realize that there is already unfolding crisis when air quality problems appear in the United States.

As asthma and other breathing related problems skyrocket, the question of how to purify air may become crucial. Learn how to purify the air in the event of some other crisis such as a major fire, gas, nuclear, or disease based crisis. Consider both DIY and pre-manufactured options to survive poor air quality.

Here are the ten things you should always keep in mind on this topic.

Finding Out What Needs to be Filtered Now

Before you start buying air purifying systems, find out what you need to filter out, following:

How much dust and “large” sized particulate is in the air?  If you can see a haze of dust, then you will more than likely need at least a MERV 5 or 6 prefilter in front of any other filter that you decide to buy for your system.  (MERV is an acronym that stands for Minimum Efficiency Rating Value.

The higher the number after the MERV designation, the smaller the particles and greater percent of them the filter is capable of removing from the air.  3M and some other brands use the MERV rating while other manufacturers use different designations.  In all of them, the higher the number, the better the filter.)

How much pollen, mold, and mildew spores are in the air?  You will either need to build an Arduino unit for detecting particles this size and slightly smaller, or purchase a pre-manufactured meter for this purpose.  While it takes some effort to learn how to assemble and program Arduino boards, they are also very versatile.

This means you can add different kinds of sensors to the board at a fraction of the cost of buying them separately.  When it comes to detecting gasses and toxins, you will find that Arduino controllers are truly your best and most affordable option.

If you are looking specifically for mold and mildew, you can also purchase testing strips or kits that can be used to capture spores from the air.  After you collect these samples, you can send the kit off to the lab to find out what kind of microbes are present.

While these kits are highly specific insofar as what is actually in the air, they are not reusable.  In addition, no matter what kind of mold or mildew you have growing in your home, the methods for getting them out of the air will be the same.

Since the Arduino system or a pre-manufactured sensor will alert you to the presence particles in the appropriate size range, this may be all you really need to know at this stage.

How much automobile exhaust, methane from waste dumps, and other chemicals are in the air.  In order to detect these gasses, you will need to build your own sensors using an Arduino board. Sadly, even a single device for a single gas can cost several hundred dollars pre-assembled.

By contrast, you will not spend more than 100.00 between the Arduino main board and an array of sensors that will cover most of the gasses that may be in the air right now.

Know What Air Quality Issues that May Occur During a Crisis

No matter how bad the air quality may seem right now, it can get much worse during a major crisis.   Consider that there are several cities in or near the major fires burning in California.  Even though the residents of these areas are accustomed to high levels of smog and other forms of air pollution, the addition of the smoke from the fires is causing many to evacuate.

In a similar fashion, even if you live in a rural area, or some place else with better air quality, there is a chance that a major fire would either force you to evacuate or attempt to clean the air.  Without a question, if you are determined to bug in, or build a survival shelter, then concerns about smoke from fires would be one main reason for focusing a good bit of attention on air purification.

Here are some other crisis related scenarios that would require a good air purification system:

Nuclear attacks where you must be able to filter out dust and other debris.  Since some of the dust may be smaller than pollen or other very small particles, you should be prepared to install at least a MERV 7 prefilter in front of others in the array, and then follow that with a MERV 14.

Remember, during normal operations you may only have one pre-filter in your system, but during a major crisis, a set of washable and reusable pre-filters will be very important when it comes to prolonging the life expectancy of the higher rated filters sitting behind it.

Gas or other chemical attacks.  Unlike pollen, dust, or other forms of debris, it is not possible to filter out gasses by using progressively smaller holes in a filter. Instead, you will need to use activated carbon or some other material that is capable of locking these gasses into the pores of the material.  For gas attacks, as well as most kinds of chemical pollution, you will need filters impregnated with activated carbon.

Biological warfare or germ attacks.  Getting these pathogens out of the air can be very difficult.  You will need at least a MERV 12 filter for the innermost layer of filters, or go as high as a MERV 14 or 15.  Since most hospitals use MERV 14 and above for air based pathogen control, this would be a good choice.

Just remember, however, once you go past MERV-13, even in a home built air purification system, the reduction in air flow may be enough to reduce the overall effectiveness of the system.  If you are going to use higher than a MERV-13, set aside just one or two units, and leave the ones with lower level filters for increasing air circulation.

Must Have Sufficient Air Flow

Did you know that the biggest problem in most homes is the lack of good air flow.  While you may be constantly trying to block off air leaks for the sake of improving heat efficiency, the actual air quality in the house is always going  to be lower than what is outdoors.

This Device Easily Turns Air Into Water!

By the time you factor in pollution buildup from various fumes, odors from normal household activities, and imbalances in humidity, controlling internal air quality may seem impossible.  On the other side of the equation, the hidden secret to most of these problems is as simple as improving air flow throughout the building.

Today, many people mistakenly believe that dedicated air purifiers, electrostatic systems on the central air system, and even de/humidifiers can all do the job without blowing lots of air around the rooms.  This, in turn leads to a situation where most people give up on these expensive systems because they see little or no benefit.

Interestingly enough, the average pre-fabricated air purifying system only puts out between 100 and 500 CFM. As you can see from the tables in these links, that may be enough to filter air in small rooms, but it may not be enough for survival needs let alone modern heavily polluted homes.

By contrast, the average box fan puts out a whopping 2500 CFM, which means that pairing it with the right filters will give you a much better solution.

Filtering out Toxic Gasses

As noted earlier, MERV ratings, and to some extent, even a robust air flow won’t do much when it comes to getting rid of toxic gasses.  While increased air flow can make the gasses easier to dissipate, you will still need something else to capture the gases.

This article has been written by Carmela Tyrell for Survivopedia.

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