I’d like an opinion on the following scheme to incorporate my forced-air heating into a whole-house air-filtration system.
I have a house with 10,000 cu. ft. of living space, which I’d like to fit with a high-efficiency ventilating and air-purifying system. The objective is to obtain hospital-quality air. My wife suffers from severe asthmatic allergies, and the house is beset with various molds, dusts, and other pollutants that would require too much at this time to remediate at their source.
My plan includes an adjustable air-handling system that will at its maximum provide an air change every 1.5 minutes (say, 6700 cfm), and filter the entire output of the forced-air heating system before it’s distributed throughout the house. The heating plant is an 80,000 btu/hr. downdraft furnace, which I’d rate at about 6.5 (out of 10) for overall efficiency, capacity, and balance.
The idea is to construct a filtration unit about 2 ft. x 2 ft. x 5 ft. long (I’m guessing here) that will house a blower and filters. Since the filtration system will move more air than the furnace, I’ll route the furnace plenum directly into the filtration module, and add additional return-air ducts to feed the filtration blower from a central location in the house.
The house is small and space is at a premium, so the ducts and filter module are likely to go in the crawl space.
I figure I’ll run the system year-round, even though it draws through the furnace, and put prefilters on the furnace return and the other return-air intakes, and particulate and carbon filters in the filter module downstream of the blower.
My questions: (1) Is 6700 cfm a reasonable size to shoot for? (2) If the furnace is included in the filtration system, will its already-mediocre performance be reduced any further? (3) Do you see any problems with this idea?
Many thanks,
James.
I have a house with 10,000 cu. ft. of living space, which I’d like to fit with a high-efficiency ventilating and air-purifying system. The objective is to obtain hospital-quality air. My wife suffers from severe asthmatic allergies, and the house is beset with various molds, dusts, and other pollutants that would require too much at this time to remediate at their source.
My plan includes an adjustable air-handling system that will at its maximum provide an air change every 1.5 minutes (say, 6700 cfm), and filter the entire output of the forced-air heating system before it’s distributed throughout the house. The heating plant is an 80,000 btu/hr. downdraft furnace, which I’d rate at about 6.5 (out of 10) for overall efficiency, capacity, and balance.
The idea is to construct a filtration unit about 2 ft. x 2 ft. x 5 ft. long (I’m guessing here) that will house a blower and filters. Since the filtration system will move more air than the furnace, I’ll route the furnace plenum directly into the filtration module, and add additional return-air ducts to feed the filtration blower from a central location in the house.
The house is small and space is at a premium, so the ducts and filter module are likely to go in the crawl space.
I figure I’ll run the system year-round, even though it draws through the furnace, and put prefilters on the furnace return and the other return-air intakes, and particulate and carbon filters in the filter module downstream of the blower.
My questions: (1) Is 6700 cfm a reasonable size to shoot for? (2) If the furnace is included in the filtration system, will its already-mediocre performance be reduced any further? (3) Do you see any problems with this idea?
Many thanks,
James.
