beijing’s diy clean air movement: if you can’t buy an expensive air filter, build one - indoor air cleaner

On days when air pollution is particularly serious in Beijing, you can smell it.
Whether you are on the street outside or within most buildings.
Air pollution does not stay outdoors, but permeates the interior through an open door and window seal.
The level of hazardous contaminants, such as PM 2, during most days.
5, lower than the inside, but not much lower.
This unpleasant fact has driven the growth of China's expensive Indoor Air Filter Market, manufactured by companies such as BlueAir in Chicago and IQAir in Switzerland.
A basic model will cost you at least $800.
Ideally, you should have a room in every room in your home, school, restaurant or office.
In other words, these filters are not cheap.
But what if there is a simple but less costly way to achieve roughly the same effect?
Maybe now. lazy-img-
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During the "air pollution" period in Beijing in January 2013, Thomas Talhelm, a Fulbright scholar who spent a year in China, began to study how air filters work.
Soon Talhelm realized the basic components
HEPA filters, fans and velcro bands hold them together-
Can be purchased on Taobao, China's leading e-commerce platform
Business site, less than $35.
So he installed his own air filter and invested in a scientific particle monitor to see how well it works. (
DC1100 Pro air quality monitor measuring the level of PM 0. 5 and PM 2.
More is the splurge, $260. )
Use a HEPA filter tied to a simple plane
The fan that surfaced, he found that the device lowered the indoor level of PM 0.
5 by 84% for PM 2 and indoor level. 92% by 5
The results were better when he tested the more powerful rotating fan.
His DIY device lowered the indoor level of PM 0.
5 by 97%, indoor level of PM 2. 96% by 5(
The expensive prefabricated air purifiers he tested have similar results. )
Last fall, Talhelm started a DIY workshop on how to make his simple air filter
First is close friends, then other foreigners who are interested, then the wider foreign and Chinese people who are worried about their lungs.
In last November, he and several friends opened a shop on Taobao to sell their DIY air filter kit --
RMB 200 (about $33).
Orders from Beijing, Shanghai and other Chinese cities flooded. (
They even received an order request from India but have not yet determined the details of the foreign shipping. )
The team hired three people to help with the order.
Pack the fans, filters and straps in the box and arrange the courier.
Talhelm is back in the United States now. S.
Finish his PhD. D.
But his friend and business partner, Gus Tate, is still in Beijing to oversee the development of their business, Smart Air Filters.
When asked if he should be identified as chief financial officer, CTO or general manager, Tate hesitated.
"I'm just the one who does it, not Tom," he told me . ".
Tate invited me to meet at the Belo Bread Bar.
Motto: "black beans and black bread"
This is his mobile office near Beijing fashion drum tower this afternoon.
While Smart Air Filters are somewhere between love and business, it is clear that there is a high demand for affordable air filters in China.
Tate said they now receive an average of 70 orders a day.
In December, the number soared to more than 100 orders per day in Shanghai's own aviation market.
lazy-img-
243688530: Before {padding-top:100%; }
DIY smart air gun filter kit for Anna Guo/smart air filter. I first heard last fall that DIY air filter was via email
Beijing Energy and Environment Network is a group of mailing list services mainly for foreign energy professionals.
About a week ago, my friend Li Hui, a 20-
A handbag marketing director in Beijing also sent me a WeChat, full of enthusiasm for the DIY workshop she has just been (
"Very interesting . . . . . . Because of air pollution and crazy [expensive]
Air Filter Market ").
Next Saturday, May 17, is another DIY air-
The filter workshop of Beijing Normal University, I also went this time.
At the same time, as Gus Tate publicly acknowledged, other Chinese entrepreneurs are now seizing the idea and working with it.
Together we searched Taobao for "DIY air filters" and came up with a dozen hits in addition to their own website.
Most use similar fans and HEPA filters.
Will the phenomenon of imitators bother you?
From a business perspective? I asked.
Or is it just a good thing for more people to breathe cleaner air?
"Well, it's mainly good," Tate began . ".
"But wait, hey, this is our picture.
"We clicked on a website showing the photographer and translated text extracted directly from the Smart Air Filter website (
Just vaguely count "foreigners in Beijing).
"I kinda hope they don't use our photos," he said . ".
Tate has complex feelings for the most sincere compliment.
But there is no doubt that there is a big market for cheap, clean air in China.