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calculating the proper carbon scrubber
- Thread starter yosun
- Start date
qupee
Member
So your space is about 2ft x 4ft x 6ft, or 50 cubic feet. You want to aim for maybe 2 full air exchanges per minute, which would be like 100cfm.
You'll see all kinds of recommendations for air exchange, ranging from 5+ times per minute to once every 5+ minutes. Room size, lighting, ambient temp all factors into where in that range you will find works better.
Regarding fan size, I like to double what I'm aiming for, possibly more. Resistance in the ducting and whatnot lowers the amount of air moving from the maximum (which is usually the cfm # a fan is advertised at), and I find that a larger fan running at lower speed is as quiet if not quieter than a smaller fan running at higher speed (also, the rated rpm of the fan matters, slower is generally quieter).
With the carbon filter, I like to double what my fan is rated at. On this point, though, you will find many filters are rated in cfm in a recirculating mode - that is where the fan and filter would be just sitting in a room circulating the air around. For a filtering mode, where the air passes through the filter once and is exhausted, the cfm rating of the filter would be lower because the air needs to move slower and be in contact with the carbon for a longer period of time to eliminate odor. If the filter manufacturer lists both modes you don't have to go double the filtering mode cfm rating, maybe 1/2 again as much. But if it's the circulating mode rating or you're not sure, I aim for that 2-3x the fan's cfm range. You almost can't go too big on a filter when it comes to effectiveness of filtering, space in the room is often the limiting factor.
So, all that said, 270cfm fan is probably ok, but it might be a bit much on full speed. That Can 33 is kind of a big filter (and heavy). I like Phresh filters, and I'd point you to the 6"x16" rated at 400cfm - http://www.phreshfilter.com/about/size-selector.aspx The 4x12 is going to be too small imho. At one time I knew off hand if the phresh filters were rated for recirculation or filtering, but I forget now and don't have time to look it up.
You'll see all kinds of recommendations for air exchange, ranging from 5+ times per minute to once every 5+ minutes. Room size, lighting, ambient temp all factors into where in that range you will find works better.
Regarding fan size, I like to double what I'm aiming for, possibly more. Resistance in the ducting and whatnot lowers the amount of air moving from the maximum (which is usually the cfm # a fan is advertised at), and I find that a larger fan running at lower speed is as quiet if not quieter than a smaller fan running at higher speed (also, the rated rpm of the fan matters, slower is generally quieter).
With the carbon filter, I like to double what my fan is rated at. On this point, though, you will find many filters are rated in cfm in a recirculating mode - that is where the fan and filter would be just sitting in a room circulating the air around. For a filtering mode, where the air passes through the filter once and is exhausted, the cfm rating of the filter would be lower because the air needs to move slower and be in contact with the carbon for a longer period of time to eliminate odor. If the filter manufacturer lists both modes you don't have to go double the filtering mode cfm rating, maybe 1/2 again as much. But if it's the circulating mode rating or you're not sure, I aim for that 2-3x the fan's cfm range. You almost can't go too big on a filter when it comes to effectiveness of filtering, space in the room is often the limiting factor.
So, all that said, 270cfm fan is probably ok, but it might be a bit much on full speed. That Can 33 is kind of a big filter (and heavy). I like Phresh filters, and I'd point you to the 6"x16" rated at 400cfm - http://www.phreshfilter.com/about/size-selector.aspx The 4x12 is going to be too small imho. At one time I knew off hand if the phresh filters were rated for recirculation or filtering, but I forget now and don't have time to look it up.
