I last posted here about 3 years ago for advice on a cyclone dust collector. Based on the advice I received here, I had purchased a 5 HP Super Dust Gorilla from Oneida at that time, and due to an unexpected turn in life I never got to use it. I had to put my passion of woodworking on hold. Literally, the cyclone is still new in the box, unused. I feel blessed and fortunate that I can finally put it to use. The nature of my post today, however is about my workshop's heating and cooling system.
3 years ago, just before I purchased my cyclone, I installed a traditional, ducted heat pump system to heat and cool the workshop ... it also has never been used, and has sat in my workshop waiting to be turned on and put to use for the past 3 years! My workshop is a standalone structure, not connected to my house, so contaminating my house with fine saw dust particles via the ducting system for the heat pump will be a non-issue. The air handler is in a small closet that will have the cold air return within 3 feet of my ShopBot. So, my big concern with this heat pump, after having researched Bill Pentz's website recently, is how the fine saw dust particles that escape my cyclone (and are free floating around in my workshop) will affect my heat pump?
To maximize fine dust collection, I'm running 6 inch duct to all my tools, and will modify ports on most of my tools to accept a 6 inch connection, but there will be some tools whose ports I cannot modify, and in these instances 4 inch and 2.5 inch duct/flex hose will be the best I can do. My cyclone will be in a closet, with a HEPA filter that is rated at MERV 16, and in this closet there will also be a bathroom style exhaust fan that I'll turn on while I'm working so that any fine saw dust particles that escape out of the cyclone's filter will be contained within the confines of the closet and carried to the outside via the exhaust fan.
The last thing I want to do is destroy my heat pump with fine sawdust particulate. It only has space for a 20 x 20 x 1 filter, and the highest MERV rating I've found on a 1 inch thick filter is MERV 13. Bill Pentz says to use MERV 15. For anyone running a ducted heat pump in your shop, what precautions are you taking to protect your heat pump?