OT&E with the new air scrubber turned up some interesting data. Filtering 2.5um airborne particulate in a house turns out to be a little tricky. That stuff is REALLY small – and also one reason why it’s bad for you. Toxic/carcinogenic, who knows? Combustion itself produces some nasty stuff and the fires burn everything in their path.
Ambient static fire season air conditions run as expected near Cameron Peak when we’re not in the plume: ~30, ~20, ~15, outside, ground level, basement, respectively. But (BIG but) when the fires are really choking us out, the new scrubber can’t keep up. The way it worked (or not in this case) was to pump the basement full of particulate. It seems to behave kinda like the Radon hazard, pooling closer to the floor by gravity, depending on air circulation.
Too early to tell how this will go, but there’s an additional 3″ of high-flow depth in front of the air path now. I doubt normal ambient levels will change. We had considerably lower normal static levels inside before. So the system works great, continuously circulating and scrubbing the air. It just needs more capacity to keep up with high concentrations of wildfire smoke.
OBTW, as long as we’re worried about pulmonary hazards, vaping creates ALOT of particulate. AQI jumps to >200 temporarily after a half hour vaping a Pax bowl in the basement. Still need more/better air circulation down there. It’s a new science project. The scary thing learned so far is what happens after closing the windows, if it was done due to smelling wildfire smoke. Dangerous levels of airborne pollutant get trapped inside, circulating until they either settle out, or next time the windows get opened on a clear day. If you’re running forced-air HVAC, they never settle out – except in your lungs and other surfaces they might stick to.
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Late Update 10/11: Morning readings are dropping into the single digits, so it’s on the right track. I’ll try adding an additional exhaust vent in the basement if circulation continues to be an issue after higher fan setting tests.
Late-late Update 10/14: An additional return vent solved the circulation issue. It’s filtering on that return now as well, with static morning readings dropping into the mid single digits – ISO Class 2 Clean Room territory. It might be too late to confirm wildfire performance again this year, but Cameron Peak flared up again last night…