Air Filter for your room on the Cheap

So in researching air filters for my room I was very disappointed to find that not only did most of the units cost $50 or more but the annual filter replacement costs were way too much. So I made my own small quiet one on the cheap.

Step 1 Parts and Time

2 hours build time

Parts - Tools

- Cardboard box of some sort. Just big enough to fit the fans. I chose an Optorite DVD burner drive box I had lying around.
- Fans. I chose 2 blue LED 120mm fans I you can pick up at www.svc.com or www.newegg.com on sale from $10-15.
- Filter. I first tried cutting a whole house filter but it is wavy and has a metal guard so I went back to home depot and found Vent filters for about $8 for a 12 pack of 4 in X 12 in filters.
- Box Cutter or x-acto knife
- Screw Driver and included fan screws

Improvements for my next version.
- Add a switch to turn it on and off.
- Add a Fan speed control.
- Add a LED kill switch or use fans with no LEDS (Hard to fall asleep sometimes but is good for a night light)
- hook to a 12 volt DC to AC power adapter so you don't need to run a wire from the computers power supply.

Comments

[micca01]

Why not use a 3 Fan USB Notebook Cooling Pad .....it works with usb Power ..You can just modify the box like shown by Toadman03.....

[alibron]

What is the significance of this air filter to oneself and the community?

[PikminRed]

OR YOU COULD USE A 10$ BOX FAN!!!!!!!!!!!


(deadly rotary motors.. Hmmmm Electric MOTARS!)

[jjohnson14]

I thought the idea was to have a quiet air filter, not a noisy air pusher! But since I don't mind the sound of a fan, I might just stick a big filter on the back of a box fan.

[Tairanasuar]

Hi im new to DOY-ing and i was just wondering if you knew how to use a regular outlet for power instead of your computer's power supply

[Toadman03]

you would just need to use a 5volt to 12volt power adapter or a variable one from radioshack or ebay. The ones I am talking about are from cd walkmans, wireless routers, computer speakers, etc. The computer power supply's red and black wire puts out 5 volts and the yellow and black puts out 12 volts. The only thing i am not sure about is the amperage I think you just need stay under 1amp but you should probably look that up.

[ironjudas]

The amperage of the drawing appliances has to be smaller than the one of the adapter. E.g for an adapter that has 2 A @ 12V output you could theoretically connect 4 fans of 500 mA @ 12V. So basically the more amps the adapter puts out, the better. But also, the higher the power consumption from the 110V-220V AC in Watts. Hope that clears thing up a bit.

[pyra_builder_1337]

when i saw the cool blue lights i thought this was going to be some ultra violet air purifier

[spydercanopus]

Good concept, but not complete without proper power instructions.  "Plugged into my PC power supply since it already has molex.", is not instructions.  But like the concept thanks.

[PikeMinnow]

Actually, that is proper power instructions. The fans in question were designed to be installed into a computer chassis, so the instruction "plug into PC power supply" is perfect because all the voltage and resistance will automatically check out and be fine.

If you are too chicken to pop open your computer, buy a power supply unit and just use that. Then you can have a lot of fans!

[spydercanopus]

 And are you a smoker?

[TheInventor1997]

when r u gonna put v2 0n

[Toadman03]

We just bought a house and are getting married on Sunday. So hopefully when we get settled and moved in I will have some time to start some cool diy projects. I really want to get back into that. Thanks for the interest it keeps me motivated to do projects like this.

[shopperben]

i think that it would be better to avoid "cutting" the filter material. Perhaps, increasing the box size to accommodate the size of the filter material. that way the filter material can be slipped in and out of the unit without the hassle of cutting it down and wasting the smaller portions. however, if you had smaller portions left over, you might be able to cut vents on the sides, then the air intake and filtering would be omni directional.

[killprogram]

i think you mean multidirectional, omnidirectional would mean that it is cleaning in all directions whereas what you have suggested would only add two side vents allowing a better ratio between intake and outflow yes however it would be "breathing" in from 3 sides and "breathing" out from one

[StoryAddict]

Not counting the recycled DVD-RW drive box and the tools, about how much do you think you spent on this project? And for those of us computer users who aren't computer engineers, what's a molex connection?

[milsorgen]

 A molex connector is the connector used inside a computer for providing power to peripherals, generally white, 4 good sized pins.

[PikminRed]

Sort of cheaper with a 10$ box fan. . . ... .... . . . . .... ... ... .... .... .... . - .... - ... . --- .... --- ... --- . -  ; . =- . - . -- ... -- ..--..

[Toadman03]

I spent about $7 on the 5 pack of filters and the fans on sale were $10 or $12 each so in total under $20. A molex connector is the power plug that connects to your cd drives and older hard drives it is a smoke colored plastic piece with 4 wires 2 black grounds one red 12 volts and 1 yellow 5 volts. You can see 4 of them in the picture under Step 2 connected to the wires from the fans.

[downgrade]

 That math doesn't add up. 7+10x2>20 closer to 30.

Also, red wires go to 5v, yellow to12v.

Any way, you can get 120mm fans for about 6 dollars brand new online. If you can find electronic surplus stores you can sometimes get them for cheaper, but it's not too common to do so.

[ironjudas]

but who cares? with the gas prices these days... jeez hehe.

[ironjudas]

first 7/5 :) its a 5 pack

[downgrade]

Ok, but it would still be 27-31 dollars spent unless you were allowed to pull out 1 and buy it for a discounted price, however 2 fans would still be 20 dollars alone. There is no way for that total to be under 20.

[Danny_Payne]

could you put 2 bottles of frozen water in there to keep it cool, or would that not work?

[Win7Maniac]

Uh, sorry dude, but the fans aren't in there to keep it cool, they're there to keep are circulating. The air goes through the filters, dirt gets trapped. . . need I say more?

[hock3ydud3]

you could maybe do a usb power supply, and just have a dual cable thing, like some external hard drives have where you plug in two usb cables to the computer, one for data and power, and the other for extra power. that would get you to 11 volts, which should be enough

[Jgatkinsn]

That rocks! You did a great job, and I can definitely see easy way to customize it to my personal needs.

[carroty]

you can use a ac to dc transformer from older model printers

[Dosbomber]

Maybe I've missed something, but what's holding the filter against the holes in the back?

[Yerboogieman]

Less Dust though, still good.

[audiolizard]

I think you meant AC to DC power adapter - like a wall wart.

[ron2470]

nice idea. i used 2 hepa filters that were very thick and i was surprised that the fans could handle them. the filters that u used are meant for vacuum vents which is most effective in dust and mites. hepa filters are a bit more expensive but filter much more. nice project. very effective for my room.

[jetsmiley123]

I have a dust might allergy, and i am really pashonate about making this filter, because in this day and age i am short on money, and now i found the perfect and easy Instructable. so hepa filters work better at collecting dust mights? can you buy hepa filters at a regular hardware store, like manards? if not, where can i get them? Internet? thanks -jetsmiley

[ron2470]

yes hepa filters are better at filtering dust mites. u can buy them at menards, home depot, or lowes. they are widely available localy.

[multiplecats]

Howly cow - look at the dust on that filter! Nice haul, Toadman! Imagine the crud you've taken out of the breathing air for both you and your computer. Hooray! I would like to make one of your filters to sit behind my computer and gobble up dust bunnies on their pilgrimage to the tower, where they try to become one with the warm hum of static electricity. I'm in an old old house and dust is a way of life. But the storebought filter tower I have has put a good kibosh on that. A few of your cool little filters would be a welcome supplement, as soon as I sit down and figure out how to run them off the house mains. Air filters are so great. I seriously can't recommend them enough. Thanks for the Instructable!

[Shadowfury]

Good idea, but will it spark?

[desidude52]

Brilliant! I have so many old computer fans and can easily find many things to use as a filter. Maybe make a box big enough to put furnace filter in.

[illdoyourdrugs]

Useful. nice!

[wyldchild007]

This is a really good idea and I would like to do a similiar idea but without needing a computer to plug the fans into. Is there a way to power the fans from the household mains? Or do you think a small regular fan rather than a computer fan would work just as well? Many thanks in advance!!

[Toadman03]

Thanks. I'm sure you could do an actual 110 volt fan if you can find one small enough that has the force to push through the filters. The other two options are to get a power adapter from radioshack or one lying around the house that is variable or 5 or 6 volts and just hard wire the fans to it or you could always just plug in a stray computer power supply, jump the green and a black wire from the Motherboard plug and use the molex plugs to power the fan.