Big Quiet Air Purifier

The Big Quiet Air Purifier is a machine designed to bring low cost clean indoor air to all with extremely low noise, low cost and high reliability. It is designed to enable large scale filtration over the long term, so it belongs in rooms full of people such as classrooms, university lecture halls, coffee shops, and offices. It's a long road to scale up and produce almost anything truly new, but I am now producing beta machines by hand, and selling them at relatively low cost in exchange for permission to monitor them, and patience with any bugs.

There is a fabric cosmetic cover in the works, and a few other improvements.

Effectively removes particles of ALL sizes, including viruses, bacteria, dust, and pollen.
Lower net cost per cubic meter of clean air than any other machine in the world, by a factor of several, indeed by my reckoning, about 10x.
Quieter for the same flow rate than any other machine in the world, by far.
Wifi/Internet controllable, integrated filter health/clogging detection.
Designed to last for decades.
Direct result of an open source research project to produce a superior fan, and, using that, a superior air purifier.
$600 plus tax for beta testers.

The Big Quiet Air Purifier is a machine that is built to make low cost air purification of particulate pollution at low noise levels viable at a large scale. We are currently in a pilot project stage to prove all stages of manufacture and sale of the machines at relatively low user-facing prices. Each machine is currently hand made and may vary in appearance.

Based on the epidemiologist-designed Airwareness simulator results, in a scenario of a normal classroom sized room, with 20 people in it for for 8 hours, the machine at 1050 CFM Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) can reduce airborne disease transmission of airborne disease, such as Sars-Cov-2 (COVID-19), by approximately 85%. At the current rate of 1 in 134 people being infected, and assuming the Omicron strain, this averages about 0.65 infections prevented per day. This is very approximate, and only meant to give a general idea, like a Fermi calculation it's better than nothing.

The total cost of ownership of the machine, including amortized capital cost, electricity, filters and maintenance, is about 18.6 cents per 8 hours of operation at 1050 CFM CADR. Therefore it costs about 27 cents per infection prevented if the above scenario is encountered. 10% to 20% of infections are now thought to lead to Long Covid (PACS), defined as functional disability for at least 6 months. We can reasonably expect to prevent this for only a few dollars. Transmission of other airborne diseases, which include Colds, Flu, Measles, Tuberculosis, and Whooping cough, are also reduced.

The BQAP removes pollen, dust, dust mites, mold spores, smoke, virus containing particles, bacteria, PM2.5 particles and all other particulates. No matter how small, we trap them all. The filter uses micro-scale electrostatic forces, not mechanical sieving in which particles smaller than the holes could pass through, to trap even the smallest particles.
This machine is quieter by far than any other comparable machine in the world at the same CADR, producing less noise than the background noise in a quiet house - about 36.5 dBa (~0.13 Sone) at the 1050 CFM CADR setting.
It is assembled without glue or other methods that make repair impractical. Repair and maintenance is always possible, for decades to come. Motor bearings are replaceable.
It may be hung from a ceiling, with hooks and chains. This saves floor space and gives tamper resistance.
Filters are expected to last approximately 3 years between replacements. Standard furnace filters are used to ensure continued availability. A replacement set costs about $125 plus tax.
Maximal-power CADR varies from 1200 to 1500 CFM, depending on the prototype, with a noise of about 47 dBa at that power level.
It is 60 cm across and 105 cm tall, and consumes 25 watts at 1050 CFM CADR, and about 50 at maximal power.
Open source, MIT license.

Contact: Adouglas@openerv.ca

I prefer to sell to people in Montreal to simplify things, but they can be dismantled, packed and shipped.