HEPA filters rock!!!

Bonnie

Super Member
I suffer from all year round allergies to a couple of soil-borne fungi, which are endemic to Georgia where I live. I have had problems since 2013. I started out on Benadryl, which controls it, but I have to take it so much, since it only lasts 4-6 hours, tops. Anyway, a pharmacist put me on to 12 hour clemastine fumerate and it worked wonderfully well. Then the OTC dosage was discontinued and I could not find it for a couple of years, so switched to Xyzal, which worked fairly well (Allegra doesn't work and gives me headaches. Zyrtec doesn't work well and after 6 days, I can't smell or taste anything).

But then I discovered that a 2.68 mg. dosage of clemastine is available by Rx, so my doctor orders that for me,, from my pharmacist. All was well for quite some time. But then, we moved into a basement apartment of our daughter and son-in-law's house, so we can all be together and not have to drive so much to visit. The back quarter of our apartment is underground but the rest of the apartment is aboveground. We have windows and a French door, and a regular door with a window in it.

Anyway, in retrospect, living in a partially underground apartment probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, with my allergies to soil fungi....but the clemastine didn't seem to work well anymore. Taking a decongestant helped some, but I was still miserable. I went to urgent care where the nurse told me to switch antihistamines every 2 weeks because the body gets used to one, and it won't work so well anymore. So, I went back to using Xyzal which worked for 2 days--then quit. I was miserable and could hardly sleep at night, with my coughing.

Now, comes the HEPA air cleaners...our daughter had given us a small one for our bedroom which we used most of the time, but it didn't really do any good. My husband got a bigger one and put it in the living room. Well, when the Xyzal quit working, I was so miserable that I just went into the living room to watch TV, read, and play games on my tablet. I was too tired to do anything else. I had not used the air filter in there very much, and thought "Well, we spent all that money on it--might as well use it." So, I put it on medium, around 12:30 PM, then just stayed in the living room, coughing off and on....but after a few hours, it dawned on me that my cough had stopped and I was losing the nasal twang to my voice when I talked. All I had done differently was use the air purifier. I stated at it in awe. IT WORKED.

I could hardly believe it. My husband quickly ordered two more for our house--another one for our bedroom like the one in the living room, and a bigger, tall floor model for the dining room/kitchen which is one long room, divided by a countertop. I put the original small one from our bedroom into the dining room.

I have stopped coughing almost completely. I can sleep through the night now, and hardly ever cough. I do take Benadryl before bedtime, since laying down seems to make me cough a little sometimes, but it wears off long before I get up. We will need to get new filters from time to time, but we don't care. My husband is just glad that something finally works for me. He will do anything to help me be comfortable. He is also going to order some merk 12 3M filters for the furnace, but the temperature in this apartment is pretty stable so it may not turn on that much, even when it gets really cold.

If I am going to be away from home for awhile, I then take the clemastine 2.68 mg. 12 hour tablet and then switch to Benadryl at night. I tell you, it feels SO GOOD not to be constantly on medicine! I can give my system a break.

Anyway I just wanted to spread the word about air purifiers and that they really work! The two tabletop units we have are by Levoit. They also have timers on them for 2 4, and 6 hours and then will turn off, if you wish. The floor model is by Germguardian, I think it is. They are fairly quiet on low or medium speed, though the Levoit one is a bit louder than the floor model on medium. But it is white noise, and doesn't bother us.
 
Thank you! I am sold. I'm going with a homemade prototype for starters. Getting your ductwork cleaned can help too. It doesn't have to be a scam either to have that service performed.
 
What do you mean by a homemade prototype, for HEPA air cleaners?

Our apartment abode is brand new--we have only been in it since September 12--so the ductwork won't need cleaning for awhile. But that is always a good thing to do.
 
What do you mean by a homemade prototype, for HEPA air cleaners?

Our apartment abode is brand new--we have only been in it since September 12--so the ductwork won't need cleaning for awhile. But that is always a good thing to do.
I made a filter from four 2inch filters, a box fan, the same box and some duct tape. You tape the 4 filters together sealing those joined edges completely. When done, it should resemble a cube with no top nor bottom. Secure the cube on one open end to the box. Then lay the box fan on top blowing towards the ceiling. I have no air leaks without securing the fan to the box so I'll leave it as is.
You can make this filter with your own parameters down to the micron size of the filter media.
Some things to condider: What is the size of the offending allergen? Buy filters to accommodate.i bought Merv 11 because are big concern was dust.
Here's a reference table.
I used a $20 box fan.
I buy my filters online from filterbuy and I think I spent about $60 on 6 filters. They should last a couple of years with two filters to spare. You could buy one filter and use that but I wanted to keep the efficiency high. One filter is probably more pleasing to the eye as well. And with one filter you would likely just the fan upright as one would expect to see a box fan. The higher the efficiency the faster one can filter the air, but at higher speeds noise level increases.
 
Hmmm....interesting...we are using Merv 12 filters on our heat pump. Never heard of "MacGyvering" an air filter.

But the HEPA filters I am promoting are the portable ones. We have 4 around our house. They filter out even mold spores, .3 microns in size, I think it is (I would need to recheck the booklets that come with the filters).

I am able to do without antihistamines so long as I remain at home. If I am going to leave the house for any length of time, I will then take an antihistamine.
 
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My allergies don't make my nose run--they make me cough. Once in a great while, I will get sneezy but Nasacort nose drops take care of that.
 
Hmmm....interesting...we are using Merv 12 filters on our heat pump. Never heard of "MacGyvering" an air filter.

But the HEPA filters I am promoting are the portable ones. We have 4 around our house. They filter out even mold spores, .3 microns in size, I think it is (I would need to recheck the booklets that come with the filters).

I am able to do without antihistamines so long as I remain at home. If I am going to leave the house for any length of time, I will then take an antihistamine.
It's a prototype for me in especially trying out grade of filter and fan, but not original nor my idea. Hepa filters are expensive for the small volume of air purify at a given rate. These home builds can cheaply surpass those efficiencies and they are entirely customizable. Seemingly I can achieve the same filtration as you describe by moving to the next Merv level of filtration with high efficiency by virtue of increased CFM (volume of air per minute). But we live in an older and presumably larger residence. The retail market designs are certainly more elegant and take up less space and are likely almost silent as compared to a clunky style we chose. BTW, tge design of this box style is called Corsi-Rosenthal.
 
I use honey in my tea to deal with my runny noses. It really does work.
Yes, back when I explored homeopathy locally grown honey was advocated. Although lots of people swear by these different remedies often the only supporting data is self-reporting or observational and not necessarily causal. Sadly our western medicine is guilty of many errors for the same methods. I'm not discounting that these things may benefit some folks, it's just not well established by scientific literature but neither are lots of things.
 
I don't think honey would do anything for me, since I am not allergic to any pollen--just a couple of soil-born fungi, which are everywhere. I am not even allergic to mildew.

Well, I am not going to make a home-made filter as you have, but continue to use the ones we have. They can be set on low, medium, or high. I have all 4 on medium. They are doing a superlative job. I don't even need pills at night, anymore. Just when we go out. I fogot to take some when we went to the grocery store yesterday, and it was wet out, with rain moving away. But we were only gone about 45 minutes and I did fine. Today, we are going to be gone much longer, so I will take something then.

But it feels so darn good not to be popping pills all the time for my allergies! :) I thank God for these filters!
 
I don't think honey would do anything for me, since I am not allergic to any pollen--just a couple of soil-born fungi, which are everywhere. I am not even allergic to mildew.

Well, I am not going to make a home-made filter as you have, but continue to use the ones we have. They can be set on low, medium, or high. I have all 4 on medium. They are doing a superlative job. I don't even need pills at night, anymore. Just when we go out. I fogot to take some when we went to the grocery store yesterday, and it was wet out, with rain moving away. But we were only gone about 45 minutes and I did fine. Today, we are going to be gone much longer, so I will take something then.

But it feels so darn good not to be popping pills all the time for my allergies! :) I thank God for these filters!
Yeah, the honey never did a thing for me either unless I made a stout hot toddy 🤪😁.
As far as the filters go, I'd say if I had them already I would use them as well. We were at a point where we needed to do something and those small hepa filters didn't comþe cheap. That's why I built my own.
Yeah I'm a minimalist when it comes to medications for myself and my mom. The first thing I did although she bucked for me a few years was to eliminate the meds that weren't absolutely necessary. It's primarily my mom's sensitivity to the allergens that I'm concerned about. She chokes too but hers maybe be compounded by all her other ongoing ailments.
 
Yeah, the honey never did a thing for me either unless I made a stout hot toddy 🤪😁.

Hah! It's good to be a Lutheran--isn't it? :p
As far as the filters go, I'd say if I had them already I would use them as well. We were at a point where we needed to do something and those small hepa filters didn't comþe cheap. That's why I built my own.
Yeah I'm a minimalist when it comes to medications for myself and my mom. The first thing I did although she bucked for me a few years was to eliminate the meds that weren't absolutely necessary. It's primarily my mom's sensitivity to the allergens that I'm concerned about. She chokes too but hers maybe be compounded by all her other ongoing ailments.
No, they are not cheap, but we got all of ours except our first small one through Amazon. Wal-Mart carries them, though different brands, but they are 'way more expensive than the ones we bought online.

We also use Nordic Pur filters on our furnace. So, every little bit helps. :)
 
I suffer from all year round allergies to a couple of soil-borne fungi, which are endemic to Georgia where I live. I have had problems since 2013. I started out on Benadryl, which controls it, but I have to take it so much, since it only lasts 4-6 hours, tops. Anyway, a pharmacist put me on to 12 hour clemastine fumerate and it worked wonderfully well. Then the OTC dosage was discontinued and I could not find it for a couple of years, so switched to Xyzal, which worked fairly well (Allegra doesn't work and gives me headaches. Zyrtec doesn't work well and after 6 days, I can't smell or taste anything).

But then I discovered that a 2.68 mg. dosage of clemastine is available by Rx, so my doctor orders that for me,, from my pharmacist. All was well for quite some time. But then, we moved into a basement apartment of our daughter and son-in-law's house, so we can all be together and not have to drive so much to visit. The back quarter of our apartment is underground but the rest of the apartment is aboveground. We have windows and a French door, and a regular door with a window in it.

Anyway, in retrospect, living in a partially underground apartment probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, with my allergies to soil fungi....but the clemastine didn't seem to work well anymore. Taking a decongestant helped some, but I was still miserable. I went to urgent care where the nurse told me to switch antihistamines every 2 weeks because the body gets used to one, and it won't work so well anymore. So, I went back to using Xyzal which worked for 2 days--then quit. I was miserable and could hardly sleep at night, with my coughing.

Now, comes the HEPA air cleaners...our daughter had given us a small one for our bedroom which we used most of the time, but it didn't really do any good. My husband got a bigger one and put it in the living room. Well, when the Xyzal quit working, I was so miserable that I just went into the living room to watch TV, read, and play games on my tablet. I was too tired to do anything else. I had not used the air filter in there very much, and thought "Well, we spent all that money on it--might as well use it." So, I put it on medium, around 12:30 PM, then just stayed in the living room, coughing off and on....but after a few hours, it dawned on me that my cough had stopped and I was losing the nasal twang to my voice when I talked. All I had done differently was use the air purifier. I stated at it in awe. IT WORKED.

I could hardly believe it. My husband quickly ordered two more for our house--another one for our bedroom like the one in the living room, and a bigger, tall floor model for the dining room/kitchen which is one long room, divided by a countertop. I put the original small one from our bedroom into the dining room.

I have stopped coughing almost completely. I can sleep through the night now, and hardly ever cough. I do take Benadryl before bedtime, since laying down seems to make me cough a little sometimes, but it wears off long before I get up. We will need to get new filters from time to time, but we don't care. My husband is just glad that something finally works for me. He will do anything to help me be comfortable. He is also going to order some merk 12 3M filters for the furnace, but the temperature in this apartment is pretty stable so it may not turn on that much, even when it gets really cold.

If I am going to be away from home for awhile, I then take the clemastine 2.68 mg. 12 hour tablet and then switch to Benadryl at night. I tell you, it feels SO GOOD not to be constantly on medicine! I can give my system a break.

Anyway I just wanted to spread the word about air purifiers and that they really work! The two tabletop units we have are by Levoit. They also have timers on them for 2 4, and 6 hours and then will turn off, if you wish. The floor model is by Germguardian, I think it is. They are fairly quiet on low or medium speed, though the Levoit one is a bit louder than the floor model on medium. But it is white noise, and doesn't bother us.

When someone mentions HEPA filters this is what I envision:

HEPA filter fan unit.jpg

Area = 4 x 2 feet

These HEPA filters are used as part of a system in in a clean room constructed with materials that do not shed particulates or outgas over time. If one uses unapproved materials in its construction, it will not conform to ISO standards.

It's great to know that one can purchase HEPA filters at reasonable prices.

_________
.
 
When someone mentions HEPA filters this is what I envision:

View attachment 4371

Area = 4 x 2 feet

These HEPA filters are used as part of a system in in a clean room constructed with materials that do not shed particulates or outgas over time. If one uses unapproved materials in its construction, it will not conform to ISO standards.

It's great to know that one can purchase HEPA filters at reasonable prices.

_________
.
No, ours do not look like this. Is this picture of one that is built into an HVAC system?
 
No, ours do not look like this. Is this picture of one that is built into an HVAC system?

Indeed. I frequently worked in clean rooms designed to filter particulates at the ISO 7 level ( i.e. 60 HEPA filtered air changes per hour).

______
.
 
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