Air quality

I thought I would share our current dilemma as my first thread here.

Hmmm...The wife keeps sneezing! We realized that we had some things out of the ordinary here,including we also had the start of the pellet stove. The wife doesn't normally have sneezing fits, so we set about cleaning everything to the hilt, including the stove again. The wood stove always adds dust, yet the pellet stove to a lesser degree does also( loading the hopper). We also had a dairy farmers barn cat show up in our barn and have kittens. We recovered the 6-8 week old wild bunch and have successfully domesticated them, although they reside in the same room with the pellet stove. We changed their litter from clay based to cedar, that cut down on that dust. BTW, Their mother has moved back out of our barn, yippie!

Anyway it caused for a discussion for controlling some of the dust here. I grabbed a few furnace filters at the local box store and placed one on the back of a fan, in hopes of helping mitigate this dust. The wifey has stopped with her sneezing, so it has caused us to wonder about an air cleaner. Home made or commercial?

Years ago (25?) we had gotten a Honeywell, and when it was time to change the filter the box store no longer carried them the filters and honeywell changed their design. With the internet now at our beck and call, and presumably replacements would be much easier to find we are investigating the idea of a permanent air purifier.

Ideas, comments, thoughts on a commercial or homemade unit?

 

Do you still have the Honywell/ what model? Someone here may have an idea on filter replacement.

 

sadly, no, seemed fruitless so many years ago.

Is there a filter system for the pellet stoves? Can't imagine it would be safe to just affix a filter behind the grill and accomplish this with the stove fan. Yet I wonder about a rock wool filter? Here's Wikipedia: Mineral wool - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Is this material safe for use as a filter?

 

Honeywell still makes those circular HEPA air purifiers, they are still highly rated.

We had one also 20+ years ago, same situation - could not find a replacement HEPA filter after 5 years of ownership.

I like your 20x20x1 furnace filter on the back of a box fan - in fact that's what we do here on the upper loft landing by the ceiling paddle fan - it really cuts down on dust & pet dander during dry winter months here.

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I'd be concerned about placing anything within the clearance areas of the pellet stove here, it might be best to keep that separate from the stove area..

Nice to see 'ya here Ambient - belated Welcome.

 

Thanks CleanFire et al!

Well, the wild bunch moves out on Saturday morning, the filter on the fan seems to be doing it's job. The wife is back to normal and peace returns to the valley.

I've decided to add a filter on the trunk line that moves the heated air from the vaulted ceiling in the kitchen to the rest of the home. When that fan is on it will help clean the air also. The addition of a separate air purifier seems redundant and another unnessaary expense.

 

We have three pellet stoves in the 2400 ft ranch style, and dust is a common issue.

In the summer it's the dust from horse paddocks outdoors that gets indoors and in the winter it's the fine ash that seems to get loose from the stoves.

We run the air handler on the central off and on, but dust is just a PITA to be rid of.

The portable electrostatic units are pretty good.

The little grid type units trap lots of crud and are easy to wash out.

I would stay away from the air purifiers that emit ozone, as that stuff is an irritant that you really don't want to breathe.

Good luck with the dust

 

Well the wild bunch is gone! The sneezing has subsided, I will investigate the electrostatic units. Thanks.

 

Likewise!

 

The sneezing stopped before the wild bunch left. She has an allergy to golden rod, and the pollen could be on the hay as well as many other things like mold. That has been part of our daily lives and no way out of it if we stay with the farm thing. We have had the filters running and without issue. I had read that thread about the vacuuming filter/cleaner for pellets. I think it is one of the reasons I would like to have a bulk delivery made with a hopper on the back side of the house.

I would say I had also test the Maeder pellets last year and although they were ashy, they weren't as bad as they are now. The ash pan was filled yesterday less than a week after the last cleaning. Something that is completely the opposite of the LG's we favor. The LG's ran for a two week period last year and barely justified a cleaning, but can't compare $$$.

 

Sounds like you're gonna have to live with the Maeder's for awhile longer, but in the long run the LG's would have less stove cleaning =less dust. I too have to deal with the wife's allergies, no picnic. I'm in the process of building a vacuum system for pellets/corn as we speak. I should look into those portable electrostatic units.

 

Pics or it really didn't get built.

 

Camera dead and still have to figure out the drawing

 

Are you building the contraption I made with the PVC pipe? That's easy peasy. Hardest part was finding the right bowl for the "hopper".

 

That's gotta be better than what I've been doing, which is sifting "bottom-of-bag" dust & fines through the fireplace screen front attachment from a 1998 Vermont Castings Resolute Stove.

I may be paying a visit to a certain box store's plumbing section soon..

Thanks for posting the pic Dex, that looks like something I can build.

Made that rookie mistake once - spent two days scrubbing ash atoning for that sin, never again..

 

I'm going to one up on Dex, I'm putting a HD pail instead.

Yes I am, men dress in BLACK and to boot with a Orange pail. I was gonna use a orange road cone for the funnel part but I'm heading back to the drawing board for now Thinking along of a single sink which has less height to deal with....

 

What would be ideal to do is have the vac outside the house with just a hose inside near the stove/sifter. Exterior central vac for pellet stoves

 

I scored a animal water feeder for zilch! It will make a nice funnel for my set-up. Pics to come soon when I'm finished. I know, I'm trying to hurry.......