Air purification systems

Carol A Edwards <cedwards [at] usgs__gov> writes

>A colleague needs information on small (e.g. table-top) air filters
>to help with air quality in the room (ca. 12 x 12) that she uses for
>oil painting. She is able to open windows during warm weather, which
>helps.  However, she is not able to install a fan vented to the
>outside for use year-round.

Before we had proper "elephant trunk" exhaust units, we purchased 3
or 4 portable units from the Swedish company,Nederman.  They are
labelled "Item 510 434" and consist of a fan connected to a rigid
plastic articulated arm which collects fumes and runs them through
an activated charcoal filter, absorbing organic vapours and
recirculating the cleaned air.  We found these worked well for
relatively small jobs, for example, removing the organic vapours
from the mixing palette while inpainting with acrylic resins in
organic solvents.  The units are also easily portable and easily
stored.  On the downside, they were fairly expensive, there is no
easy and reliable way of knowing when the filter needed replacing
and the replacement filters were ridiculously expensive.  We kept a
log book to record the number of hours each filter was used and
later adapted the unit to take non-genuine filters made of the same
material at a fraction of the cost.

Depending on local regulations, you might be better to consider
installing an exhaust fan in the room attached to an "elephant
trunk"- while these are initially more expensive than the portable
option, the cost of replacement filters will overtake this cost at
some point not too far down the track.

Thomas Dixon
National Gallery of Victoria
Melbourne Australia


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 16:38
                Distributed: Thursday, December 5, 2002
                       Message Id: cdl-16-38-006
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