Al B. Fuct
once had a dog named
Ionisers are tops for scent killing. There's 2 basic kinds, high voltage corona discharge types and ultraviolet (UV).
Corona types are very cheap, very effective scent killers and easily home built. They are nothing more than a stack of diodes and capacitors connected as a string of voltage doublers to AC mains voltage. However, corona types create nitrogen oxides (NOx) which mix with humidity to form nitric acid (HNO3). Grow exhaust air treated with corona ionisers must vent directly to outdoors. If you vent into a building void (attic, crawlspace), the nitric acid could corrode steel structural parts like joist nailer plates. Bad bad bad. Grow op not allowed to hurt house.
UV types are much more expensive, but do not give off NOx and thus don't create HNO3. However, most UV types are single 10-15 watt fluoro tube units and can not treat large volumes of air.
The answer is more UV tubes. Here's a commercially made multi-tube UV ioniser by Big Blue Air:
The 5 tube, 10" version makes 4000mg/hr of ozone, suiting up to 1200CFM of airflow.
Problem is... it's $US600, would cost $150 to deliver from the US and would need a 110v-240V transformer (another $150) just to run on my local AC mains.
I strongly suspect I can replicate this for a lot less than $900 and build it to suit 240V 50Hz. Mounting 5 UV tubes inside a piece of steel duct sounds like quick work.
I've started combing the lighting suppliers for ballasts and tubes. Found some 20W tubes and if the cost is OK, I'll use 5. Should be able to get 5500mg/hr O3 our of 5x 20w tubes. Housed in a length of 10" duct, it should have no trouble treating my exhaust fan's 280litres/sec (600CFM) flow rate.
yee haw, babay... bigger, better, more.
Will post construction notes & pix as I accumulate the parts. Will be an afternoon's assembly project.
Corona types are very cheap, very effective scent killers and easily home built. They are nothing more than a stack of diodes and capacitors connected as a string of voltage doublers to AC mains voltage. However, corona types create nitrogen oxides (NOx) which mix with humidity to form nitric acid (HNO3). Grow exhaust air treated with corona ionisers must vent directly to outdoors. If you vent into a building void (attic, crawlspace), the nitric acid could corrode steel structural parts like joist nailer plates. Bad bad bad. Grow op not allowed to hurt house.
UV types are much more expensive, but do not give off NOx and thus don't create HNO3. However, most UV types are single 10-15 watt fluoro tube units and can not treat large volumes of air.
The answer is more UV tubes. Here's a commercially made multi-tube UV ioniser by Big Blue Air:
The 5 tube, 10" version makes 4000mg/hr of ozone, suiting up to 1200CFM of airflow.
Problem is... it's $US600, would cost $150 to deliver from the US and would need a 110v-240V transformer (another $150) just to run on my local AC mains.
I strongly suspect I can replicate this for a lot less than $900 and build it to suit 240V 50Hz. Mounting 5 UV tubes inside a piece of steel duct sounds like quick work.
I've started combing the lighting suppliers for ballasts and tubes. Found some 20W tubes and if the cost is OK, I'll use 5. Should be able to get 5500mg/hr O3 our of 5x 20w tubes. Housed in a length of 10" duct, it should have no trouble treating my exhaust fan's 280litres/sec (600CFM) flow rate.
yee haw, babay... bigger, better, more.
Will post construction notes & pix as I accumulate the parts. Will be an afternoon's assembly project.