
Grad Student Rigs Cheap Alternative to $1,000 Air Purifiers in China - lbenes
http://scienceblog.com/73679/grad-student-rigs-cheap-alternative-rival-1000-air-purifiers-smog-choked-china/
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omegaworks
China, once again proving that:

Cost of healthcare + cost of making "clean air bubbles" for the people that
can afford them < cost of actually having clean air for everyone.

Ah, that wonderful free market. Take a big, full lungful of that externalized
cost. Don't worry, central government says it won't hurt you!

~~~
icebraining
Using China as an example of the ills of free markets sounds like a bad joke.

~~~
rdtsc
Actually it is not. In some respect their are probably less regulated and less
constrained by what we think are the true "free" market (US). The lack of
constraints doesn't come from lack of laws or rules but from non-enforcement
and corruption. And, well, nothing says free market like getting the quickest
and fastest way to your goal -- bribe your way out, install and control
lobbyists, buy up all the competitors and so on. So in that respect one can
say they are more free than Americans. (But then again, if one considers the
power of lobbying, and revolving doors between industries and agencies
regulating then maybe US does have the free-est market of all -- the
government is just a branch of each of the large companies).

On a side note of "free" markets: I often hear from deluded libertarians "oh
man, FDA (or other such govt agency) is so evil, controlling our lives, so
ineffective and corrupt it should be abolished, and people know better what it
good to eat". That argument is fine and dandy because we know this
"libertarian paradise" doesn't exists, so they can argue and compare a
fictional (Ayn Rand-ian ?) universe with a real world and then criticize the
real world based on it. Which like comparing Star Wars space ships to real
world Navy ships. ("My dilithium crystals are 100x as powerful as your 2
nuclear reactors!")

My response is usually that I invite them to take a plane ride, not into
another universe or the future, but across "the pond" to Africa or any 3rd
world country with an effectively non-functioning FDA (or similar agency).
Where anyone can sell you anything without any controls or checks or worrying
about being punished. Vegetables laced with deadly chemicals but that look
good on the exterior. You'll get cancer in a couple of years but good luck
finding that one vendor. Things like that. The interesting thing is that these
"free market" libertarian paradises exist, except they are always failed and
corrupt states and they are pretty terrible places to live in.

~~~
icebraining
Free markets require respect for private property. China is a place where
private property has only been respected by the law less than a decade ago,
where the State owns all the land and you can only lease it, and even then you
can get beaten to death if you refuse to accept an expropriation.

You can't just say "deregulated == free markets".

 _A free market economy is a market-based economy where prices for goods and
services are set freely by the forces of supply and demand and are allowed to
reach their point of equilibrium without intervention by government policy._

This does not exist in China. China is a corporatist state, not a laissez-
faire economy.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
There are no functioning laissez-faire economies that I know of.

~~~
icebraining
I don't disagree. It might be that they're impossible. All I'm saying is that
China is not even close to one.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
China is dysfunctional, where the maxim of ask for forgiveness (or avoid
detection) reigns over ask for permission. Hong Kong and Singapore are often
touted as the freest economically, but both are effectively smallish city
states. Living in china makes you appreciate the USA's EPA, however.

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peferron
I have four of them in my apartment in Shanghai. They definitely work; I
verified it over and over with a laser particle counter. They're loud, but
simply running them in the rooms you're not occupying (e.g. in the bedroom
during the day, then in the living room during the night) is already a
significant gain.

If you get some for your own home, make sure to cut down on the drafts first;
running your purifiers full power won't help you if polluted air is always
coming in. I lined all my windows with foam tape from the hardware store.

Rather than fighting every day to keep my indoor air clean (that still doesn't
do anything for me when I head out) and my internet connection to foreign
servers above dialup speeds (four VPNs and counting), I've simply decided to
move back to the Bay Area though. :|

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homulilly
$1000? I have a (true) HEPA air filter I use at home to keep allergies and
dust down and it was only around $150. Still a lot more than this trick but
damn that's expensive.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
These $1k filters are designed for 2.5 ppm particles, not dust (10 ppm) and
allergens. China's air problems are quite different from the west's. Your $150
filter would be completely unsuited.

~~~
rahimnathwani
The HEPA filter will also become ineffective really quickly unless you have a
pre-filter to get rid of the larger particles first.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
They have multiple levels of filters. We have plenty of 10 ppm also, but the
killer is the 2.5.

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zdean
I work for a manufacturer of higher end air purifiers. Air purification is not
a single-problem market waiting for a single solution. People buy purifiers to
relieve allergies, to generally have cleaner indoor air, deal with their
chemical sensitivities, etc. That alone creates the need for a wide range of
products. On top of that, user experience is important to a lot of people...so
design, noise levels, UX, etc. creates even more options for people.

The point being that this inexpensive approach solves a very narrow set of
problems...leaving many others that the rest of the industry addresses through
a wide range of products (just like any other industry). For example, a $10
phone will work just fine making phone calls...yet people still pay $500 for
certain smartphones that do/offer much more.

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amanfredi
HEPA is only for particulate contaminants. At least some of the expensive
filters have activated charcoal and other chemical filters.

~~~
hcarvalhoalves
> At least some of the expensive filters have activated charcoal

Activated carbon is effective just to remove odors and nothing more. It's not
expensive either, it's like $ 10/kg retail.

A high-end filter is more likely to work with ionization. [1]

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Sharp-FPA80UW-Plasmacluster-
Purifier-F...](http://www.amazon.com/Sharp-FPA80UW-Plasmacluster-Purifier-
Filter/dp/B0067X12EW/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top)

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Chromozon
[https://twitter.com/BeijingAir](https://twitter.com/BeijingAir)

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rahimnathwani
I know people who've bought these kits. They say it's loud, but that it seems
to work as they can see the HEPA filter get dirty over time.

My $1000+ air purifiers are quiet enough to keep on in the bedroom at night,
even on full speed. Plus they don't just filter particles. Plus they are easy
to wheel around when necessary. Yes, the manufacturer (IQAir) is probably
making a killing on the machines and the (three) replacement filter modules,
but it's worth it for the effectiveness and convenience.

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goatforce5
Here's Consumer Reports talking about doing this 3 years ago

[http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2011/07/why-not-a-
do...](http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2011/07/why-not-a-do-it-
yourself-air-purifier/index.htm)

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devicenull
HEPA filter + box fan is very common, and very cheap. Not sure why this is
particularly notable.

~~~
Zikes
Apparently not very common in China, which would make it notable there.

Citing Talhelm as "grad student" in the title makes it a bit more clickbaity,
gives it a sort of a "one weird trick" vibe, but reading the article it does
sound like he's onto something.

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_delirium
Earlier discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6659091](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6659091)

