Making DIY Air Purifiers to Cope With Wildfire Smoke Indoors
With air purifiers in demand due to the pandemic, folks were looking for inventive, low-cast ways to filter air even before fires lit up all along the West Coast. When it comes to dealing with smoke, DIY approaches to air filtration can be effective. Here’s more from MOTHERBOARD:
When Wired looked at the potential effectiveness of these DIY filter-box fans on removing virus particles from the air, they found that one 2018 study from Singapore specifically examined soot and smoke from wildfires. The researchers concluded that a fan with a filter slapped on the front and mounted in a window to pull air inside through the filter reduced small particulate matter by around 75 percent.
In short, they don’t look that sophisticated, but DIY air purifiers can improve air quality, and are definitely better than nothing if you’re struggling with smoke and don’t have an alternative. Studies show that indoor air purification, when the air outside is badly polluted, reduces inflammation and has cardiopulmonary benefits, even in young, healthy people.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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