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ShroomGoddess
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Registered: 01/19/06
Posts: 235
Last seen: 9 months, 8 days
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Help! What HP blower do I need for my flowhood???
#21256403 - 02/10/15 11:12 PM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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Hello all!
So- I ordered a pre-made flow hood off ebay several years ago. This kit contained the following: (1) 2'x1'x4" heap filter, a wood box which was built around the heap filter, and a squirrel cage blower which screwed down over an open slot in the box. Pretty simple...
Only I lost the damn squirrel cage blower, and now I have no idea what horse power blower I need to replace it with. I figure that if I get one that's too strong, then the motor will eventually blow because it can't push through the hepa filter fast enough. Too little HP, and air will not properly flow through the filter.
Help me figure this out, please!
Thanks all
-------------------- "Something else I'm getting tired of in this country is all this stupid talk I have to listen to about children. That's all you hear about anymore, children: 'Help the children, save the children, protect the children.' You know what I say? Fuck the children!" -George Carlin
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Groo
sola dosis facit venenum



Registered: 12/06/14
Posts: 2,310
Last seen: 2 months, 24 days
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Re: Help! What HP blower do I need for my flowhood??? [Re: ShroomGoddess]
#21256561 - 02/10/15 11:47 PM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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read and research I don't have the details/specs of your assembly so check this out and I'm sure others will chime in also but ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT FOREST FIRES!http://www.fungifun.org/English/Flowhood
Edited by Groo (02/10/15 11:48 PM)
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PirateSwazey



Registered: 12/12/12
Posts: 2,993
Loc: Here, Now
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Re: Help! What HP blower do I need for my flowhood??? [Re: Groo]
#21256691 - 02/11/15 12:10 AM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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Can't tell exactly but around 300CFM @ 1" should work fine...
It's better for your blower to be too strong than too weak.
You can always choke it down or run it through a speed controller.
Edited by PirateSwazey (02/11/15 09:55 AM)
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ShroomGoddess
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Registered: 01/19/06
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Re: Help! What HP blower do I need for my flowhood??? [Re: PirateSwazey]
#21256869 - 02/11/15 01:07 AM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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Thank you for your replies! I wish I had the specs handy, but unfortunately the filter is at a friend's house. And even if I had it, it's manuals are long gone. I'm so tempted to say that the blower it came with was 1/2 horse power. But I'm not sure if that's correct.
I did some digging in the archives, and RR and others also partially address the issue. Here's a link to the thread, if anyone in my same predicament is interested in reading it:
http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/6140801
More advice always welcome!
And thanks again posters!!!
-------------------- "Something else I'm getting tired of in this country is all this stupid talk I have to listen to about children. That's all you hear about anymore, children: 'Help the children, save the children, protect the children.' You know what I say? Fuck the children!" -George Carlin
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PirateSwazey



Registered: 12/12/12
Posts: 2,993
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Re: Help! What HP blower do I need for my flowhood??? [Re: ShroomGoddess]
#21256876 - 02/11/15 01:13 AM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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HP on the motor is not what is important, its the cubic feet per minute (CFM).
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ShroomGoddess
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Registered: 01/19/06
Posts: 235
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Re: Help! What HP blower do I need for my flowhood??? [Re: PirateSwazey]
#21256939 - 02/11/15 02:07 AM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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Oh, okay. Thank you for clarifying that! I dunno why it's so hard for me to get my head around this
-------------------- "Something else I'm getting tired of in this country is all this stupid talk I have to listen to about children. That's all you hear about anymore, children: 'Help the children, save the children, protect the children.' You know what I say? Fuck the children!" -George Carlin
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PirateSwazey



Registered: 12/12/12
Posts: 2,993
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Re: Help! What HP blower do I need for my flowhood??? [Re: PirateSwazey]
#21256956 - 02/11/15 02:23 AM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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Again I would just get a blower that you know will be big enough to push to laminar flow or higher. I got my blower from a HVAC guy, never had any specs at all. It was really big... like really really big & I was able to make it work. You can block the intake with cardboard to choke it down, or use a speed controller (I got mine for $20 at harbor freight tools). Check out flowhood builds by EvilMushroom666 & Total... they are both TC's and had a similar approach to how I built mine, winging it on the blower. It sounds like that is going to be the case for you too because you don't have the specs for your filter.
Quote:
PirateSwazey said: --------------- WIRING THE BLOWER ---------------
Most of the time these blowers have a few different speed settings available just by changing which wire you give power to. Mine had 4 different speeds on it, each corresponding to a different colored wire going to the motor. The white wire coming off of the motor will be the constant. Connect that to the silver screw in the 3 prong plug. Test out each of the colored wires and figure out which one you think is going to work best for you. Whichever colored wire you use, (I used yellow) connect to the gold screw. It took about 30 minutes of messing with the wiring on this thing to get it right. It is simple enough & there are plenty of videos on youtube if you can't to figure it out.

Once the plug is all wired up, plug it into the bottom of the speed controller & start playing around with it. You want the flow coming out of the filter to be just strong enough to bend a bic lighter 60-90° without blowing it out.

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ShroomGoddess
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Registered: 01/19/06
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Last seen: 9 months, 8 days
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Re: Help! What HP blower do I need for my flowhood??? [Re: PirateSwazey]
#21257006 - 02/11/15 02:57 AM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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Aww... thank you so much! Killer info. I will make good use of it!
-------------------- "Something else I'm getting tired of in this country is all this stupid talk I have to listen to about children. That's all you hear about anymore, children: 'Help the children, save the children, protect the children.' You know what I say? Fuck the children!" -George Carlin
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insanemike

Registered: 02/23/14
Posts: 4,272
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Re: Help! What HP blower do I need for my flowhood??? [Re: ShroomGoddess]
#21257016 - 02/11/15 03:07 AM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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You need 100 cfm per sq. ft. of HEPA filter surface area. So if your HEPA is 2'x1', you need a 200 cfm blower. You also need to add about 20% more cfm to compensate for your prefilter. So altogether you need 240 cfm.
You could go with something like this
http://m.ebay.com/itm/130829303082?_mwBanner=1
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PirateSwazey



Registered: 12/12/12
Posts: 2,993
Loc: Here, Now
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Re: Help! What HP blower do I need for my flowhood??? [Re: insanemike]
#21257688 - 02/11/15 09:47 AM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
insanemike said: You need 100 cfm per sq. ft. of HEPA filter surface area. So if your HEPA is 2'x1', you need a 200 cfm blower. You also need to add about 20% more cfm to compensate for your prefilter. So altogether you need 240 cfm.
Need to figure in for resistance too though. If she were to get a blower that moves 240 CFM @ open air it would not work at all. The inline you posted from fleabay would not work here.
These are the specs from a FP-1... It is a 2'x1' filter
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Groo
sola dosis facit venenum



Registered: 12/06/14
Posts: 2,310
Last seen: 2 months, 24 days
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Re: Help! What HP blower do I need for my flowhood??? [Re: PirateSwazey]
#21257918 - 02/11/15 10:42 AM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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You can actually pull up your ebay archive purchase history now for 5 years go check your account.
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ShroomGoddess
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Registered: 01/19/06
Posts: 235
Last seen: 9 months, 8 days
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Re: Help! What HP blower do I need for my flowhood??? [Re: Groo]
#21260637 - 02/11/15 08:03 PM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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Thanks for the posts everyone! I am beginning to get a better idea about what it is I'm trying to tabulate here.
Great suggestion to look up my ebay history, but unfortunately I bought this baby back in college- a good 8 years ago : (
I tried finding a used one, but I think I'm gonna have to explore harbor freight, craigslist, and some online stores to find just the right one. Once I physically get ahold of the filter again I will be able to measure it and examine it further for information.
Again, thanks for all your replies! xoxo
-------------------- "Something else I'm getting tired of in this country is all this stupid talk I have to listen to about children. That's all you hear about anymore, children: 'Help the children, save the children, protect the children.' You know what I say? Fuck the children!" -George Carlin
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insanemike

Registered: 02/23/14
Posts: 4,272
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Re: Help! What HP blower do I need for my flowhood??? [Re: PirateSwazey]
#21260766 - 02/11/15 08:26 PM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
PirateSwazey said:
Quote:
insanemike said: You need 100 cfm per sq. ft. of HEPA filter surface area. So if your HEPA is 2'x1', you need a 200 cfm blower. You also need to add about 20% more cfm to compensate for your prefilter. So altogether you need 240 cfm.
Need to figure in for resistance too though. If she were to get a blower that moves 240 CFM @ open air it would not work at all. The inline you posted from fleabay would not work here.
These are the specs from a FP-1... It is a 2'x1' filter

This is where I got my info. That particular section on blower size comes from Stamets.
http://www.fungifun.org/English/Flowhood
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PirateSwazey



Registered: 12/12/12
Posts: 2,993
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Re: Help! What HP blower do I need for my flowhood??? [Re: insanemike]
#21260963 - 02/11/15 09:11 PM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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Right. I am familiar with that website & Stamets TMC... just saying you are missing a very important part:
Quote:
1. Find out the area of your filter by multiplying the width and the hight in feet (for instance the smallest reasonably usable filter would be 2ft x 1ft) 2ft x 1ft = 2 ft2 2. Multiply the required air speed(the one Stamets specifies, 100 ft/min) with the area of your filter 100 ft/min x 2 ft2 = 200 ft3/min So 200 ft3/min(= cfm = "cubic feet per minute") is the amount of air your blower must deliver at the sum of the STATIC PRESSURE of the HEPA filter + prefilter.
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insanemike

Registered: 02/23/14
Posts: 4,272
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Re: Help! What HP blower do I need for my flowhood??? [Re: PirateSwazey]
#21261032 - 02/11/15 09:26 PM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
PirateSwazey said: Right. I am familiar with that website & Stamets TMC... just saying you are missing a very important part:
Quote:
1. Find out the area of your filter by multiplying the width and the hight in feet (for instance the smallest reasonably usable filter would be 2ft x 1ft) 2ft x 1ft = 2 ft2 2. Multiply the required air speed(the one Stamets specifies, 100 ft/min) with the area of your filter 100 ft/min x 2 ft2 = 200 ft3/min So 200 ft3/min(= cfm = "cubic feet per minute") is the amount of air your blower must deliver at the sum of the STATIC PRESSURE of the HEPA filter + prefilter.

I apologize for hijacking your thread OP but maybe you can learn something as well. PirateSwazey, what does the 3 in 200 ft3/min mean? Maybe that's the part I'm missing.
Edited by insanemike (02/11/15 09:27 PM)
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PirateSwazey



Registered: 12/12/12
Posts: 2,993
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Re: Help! What HP blower do I need for my flowhood??? [Re: insanemike]
#21261077 - 02/11/15 09:35 PM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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That 3 is referring to cubic feet (ft3). Just the measurement we use for quantifying the amount of air a fan moves (CFM).
The part you are missing is the static pressure. Any given filter has what is called static pressure, or resistance, which is measured in W.G. (water gauge).
Reason the eBay fan you posted wouldn't work is because it doesn't account for the static pressure (resistance) of the HEPA & pre-filter.
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