Turning Air Handler into Air Cleaner

[Larry Fox]

The outside portion of my house central air system has "expired" and I need to replace it. The inside air handler is new but can't be used with the new outside condensing unit I am putting in. The previous owner replaced it just before he sold the house and put in the bare minimum. The thought occured to me that I might be able to turn it into an air cleaner for my shop. Would it work as such if I monuted it in the attic above my shop and cut a vent in the ceiling and hooked it up to the draw side with a bunch of filters in front of it and either returned the air to the shop or vented it outside? Seems that it would but I really don't know much about this sorta thing.

Thanks for looking . ..

Larry

[glenn bradley]

You'll get plenty of pro and con opinions on "ambient" air cleaners here I would imagine. I built a case for a gable fan with two 20" x 20" filters on the in end and one on the out end. It just sits off in the corner, sets near where I'm sanding or hangs from the rafters and recycles the volume of air in my garage about every 6 minutes. I say go for it. One tip from experience; make your filters EASY to get to and change while your designing your Frakenstein cleaner. You'll be apt to check and clean them more often if it isn't a chore. Have fun.

[Bill White]

I made mine from an air cleaner from a smoking room in an office building.
Took all the fancy-schmancy charcoal stuff out and replaced it with multilple air filters.
Of course it is not a HEPA, but it sure does help when I am working stuff inside the shop.
Sure is an eyeopener when I clean out the filters.
Bill

[Julio Navarro]

I thinbk its definately doable.
You'll need to balance the system with enough filters but it would work.

You might even be able to run several ducts in your attic above your shop and suck air from several places rather than just one. Perhaps even set up a system where the intakes and exhaust are at opposite ends of the room so you have an air circulation.

Let us know how it goes.

[Kyle Kraft]

Check out this thread http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=32000.

[Jeff Horton]

Sure you can, but the draw back is it cleaning the air after the lung damaging dust is all ready floating in the air.

[Al Willits]

Might want to check your local HVAC supplier when you get ready for filters, the sell filter racks for almost any common size filter.

If your gonna use only one or two, might be easier to buy them over making them.

Al

[Thomas Canfield]

A consideration adding a box so that multiple filter openings can be used to slow down the velocity through the filters. That will decrease the pressure drop across the filter and increase the life of the filter and also increase the dust reduction. The normal air flow velocity on a filter for a residential air handler is too high for good dust removal and life.

I used a residential type air conditioner/electric heater air handler in my shop but installed a plenum box with two filter areas below the air handler normal filter filter to catch the majority of the dust. A picture was sent in an earlier reply on air conditioner. I built the box for a third filter, but have not installed it yet. It does catch the dust ahead of the air handler and coils, but the filters are too close to the floor to do much for cleaning the dust from the air at face level. I am considering installing an elevated air dust removal in the future.