Any ideas for a whole home CO2 scrubber?

[Naturalreef]

Agree on human & animal health benefit of fresh air. I’m in a temperate climate so can open the windows/doors almost year round. That said, to peg pH, I resort to CO2 scrubbing. Btw: have you thought about doing recirculating? That will extend your media’s life by 3-4x.

mine is recirculating which allows me every other month of media change.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Get some indoor plants, natural and cheapest CO2 scrubber

People suggest that constantly, and it is never a useful solution.

You're home would need to look like a large greenhouse to take up enough CO2 to offset the CO2 produced in a home.
Not only is this supported by measurements, but it is easy to understand.

Even ignoring sources like gas stoves, from people alone the source is massive compared to plants. If plants were to take up the CO2 you exhale each day, they would have to add roughly as much mass as you eat in food each day. Since that is never close to realized in an ordinary home, plants are not useful in this context.

 

[face]

People suggest that constantly, and it is never a useful solution.

You're home would need to look like a large greenhouse to take up enough CO2 to offset the CO2 produced in a home.
Not only is this supported by measurements, but it is easy to understand.

Even ignoring sources like gas stoves, from people alone the source is massive compared to plants. If plants were to take up the CO2 you exhale each day, they would have to add roughly as much mass as you eat in food each day. Since that is never close to realized in an ordinary home, plants are not useful in this context.

Indeed. especially for me where I live in an interior unit with no sunlight haha. I remember discussing this issue years ago and tried several things. seems like I landed on dosing sodium hydroxide back then though I cant remember how effective it was. I have several smaller tanks with small skimmers and most likely really high indoor CO2 in a small sealed condo with temperature extremes that do not allow opening windows really. I was just reminded how good the tanks can look after a 3 day vacation.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

Modify a Cheap Dual Port Air Pump so it has Hose connections on its case, seal it with Aquarium RTV. Have it pump air into the Skimmer. Use a Pool Noodle, cut in half, cut a hole in the Pool Noodle, to put the hoses through it. Close the window on the Pool Noodle.

 

[face]

Modify a Cheap Dual Port Air Pump so it has Hose connections on its case, seal it with Aquarium RTV. Have it pump air into the Skimmer. Use a Pool Noodle, cut in half, cut a hole in the Pool Noodle, to put the hoses through it. Close the window on the Pool Noodle.

Interesting idea. My tanks unfortunately aren’t near a window I’d have to run a very long hose.

 

[jda]

Open a window on each side of your home for one minute a day. Close them and wait a few minutes and the temperature will likely be the same as it was before you started as the walls and stuff inside quickly heats the air back up. Even if you do have to heat a bit, a few pennies in natural gas is like 100 years before you pay off a ERV.

If you live in a sealed high rise building, they are supposed to keep co2 under 800ppm if the windows cannot open at all. Need a co2 meter to know for sure.

You can peg pH with a co2 meter too. I know almost exactly what my tank pH is going to be if my indoor co2 is 420, 500, 600, etc.

 

[face]

Open a window on each side of your home for one minute a day. Close them and wait a few minutes and the temperature will likely be the same as it was before you started as the walls and stuff inside quickly heats the air back up. Even if you do have to heat a bit, a few pennies in natural gas is like 100 years before you pay off a ERV.

If you live in a sealed high rise building, they are supposed to keep co2 under 800ppm if the windows cannot open at all. Need a co2 meter to know for sure.

You can peg pH with a co2 meter too. I know almost exactly what my tank pH is going to be if my indoor co2 is 420, 500, 600, etc.

What CO2 meter do you use? I guess I will buy one and experiment with trying to reduce the home CO2. I think it does cause me some lethargy even and possibly allergies. I know I really have to open all the windows and Use fans fans to circulate the air out in order to have any effect on my pH. I think I will look into do work from home away from home maybe in a coffee shop or something more often see if that helps.

 

[Dburr1014]

I always toyed with the idea diy.
I like this one and it can be done thru a window.

Head over to LouDawson.com for this content.

DIY air to air heat exchanger heat recovery ventilator for fresh air in the ski touring shop and backcountry blog office where we evaluate gear and make things.

www.loudawson.com

 

[TheSheff]

Probably but just saying hello to an HVAC company cost a few grand.

just make a friend with someone that works for HVAC lol. my roommate works in HVAC, ill ask him today.

 

[jda]

What CO2 meter do you use? I guess I will buy one and experiment with trying to reduce the home CO2. I think it does cause me some lethargy even and possibly allergies. I know I really have to open all the windows and Use fans fans to circulate the air out in order to have any effect on my pH. I think I will look into do work from home away from home maybe in a coffee shop or something more often see if that helps.

I have one of the $50-100 dollar ones from Amazon. Get one with a cord if you can since the batteries are junk - I think that they are all USB C so not hard to get a cord yourself. I would avoid the $20 ones since they don't seem to be accurate.

I have this unit except it is some other brand and came with a cord:


The tank pH lags the indoor co2 a bit. Some folks air out the room for a few minutes and then turn the HVAC back on which mixes up all of the home air and raises the co2 in the tank room again and succumb to defeat when their tank did not change too much instantly. This is an ongoing thing unless you can air out every room at once.

Had a guy write me that he was on sleeping medication, headache and a few other meds for feeling tired all of the time. Got a co2 meter and he was like over 2-3000ppm, or something really high (I forget). He got down below 500 ppm and was able to get off all of his meds and slept well again and the headaches go away. It is real. Ironically, his AC bill rose like $2 and was less than he paid for a generic drug copay.

If your home is over 700-800, I would air it out, but the closer to 400 the better. We are about to enter the winter months and the low pH threads will start again like they did this summer.

Box fan in a window is $25 solution. Window open on other side of the home if you can. Even 1 MPH of wind can move like 1000 CF of air into a 3x4 window in a minute.

 

[face]

I have one of the $50-100 dollar ones from Amazon. Get one with a cord if you can since the batteries are junk - I think that they are all USB C so not hard to get a cord yourself. I would avoid the $20 ones since they don't seem to be accurate.

I have this unit except it is some other brand and came with a cord:


The tank pH lags the indoor co2 a bit. Some folks air out the room for a few minutes and then turn the HVAC back on which mixes up all of the home air and raises the co2 in the tank room again and succumb to defeat when their tank did not change too much instantly. This is an ongoing thing unless you can air out every room at once.

Had a guy write me that he was on sleeping medication, headache and a few other meds for feeling tired all of the time. Got a co2 meter and he was like over 2-3000ppm, or something really high (I forget). He got down below 500 ppm and was able to get off all of his meds and slept well again and the headaches go away. It is real. Ironically, his AC bill rose like $2 and was less than he paid for a generic drug copay.

If your home is over 700-800, I would air it out, but the closer to 400 the better. We are about to enter the winter months and the low pH threads will start again like they did this summer.

Box fan in a window is $25 solution. Window open on other side of the home if you can. Even 1 MPH of wind can move like 1000 CF of air into a 3x4 window in a minute.

Nice I have always liked inkbird products. wow they sure got destroyed on reveiws though LOL. My setup is a challenge im in an interior unit with an open top court yard but gets absolutely no wind. So even with windows open its a challenge to get air exchange and the building management prohibits things like box fans sitting in the windows.

 

[jda]

The battery is terrible. Lots of reviews about that are not good. I brought mine to my desk to see if it had a brand - it does not, but it also does not say InkBird. On the side of my desk it says 426. When I had it in front of me between my face the the monitors it went up to 525, or so. I would say that it is working well. When I take it outside, it goes to like 405. The battery will be dead by tonight unless I plug it back in.

 

[Richsoar]

Buy some live house plants.

 

[jasonrusso]

They used to use it on Submarines, so it works to an extent

 

[nickm]

Yes I agree that would work but the problem is my electric bill is already off the charts with a large aquarium and regular 110 degree heat hvac unit already runs almost 24/7 and the humidity is super high like 80%.

80% is high? You should get a dehumidifier also.

 

[Tangs-A-Lot]

They used to use it on Submarines, so it works to an extent

Use what …. A fan in a window ??

 

[Panky]

Turn on a bathroom fan. It wil help some

 

[oceake]

If you have a skimmer, consider running a hose from your skimmer's intake to outside air. My tank is against a wall shared with my garage, and I run a hose to the garage and see a nice improvement in pH stability. Just make sure the gauge of the hose is adequate.

 

[jasonrusso]

Use what …. A fan in a window ??

Haha, obviously!! No, I saw a show where they mentioned they used to put bags of the CO2 Scrubber media all around the submarine.

 

[Righteous]

Would you be able to install a thru wall / ductless ERV? I googled those and they look interesting.

I installed an ERV last year for our downstairs, and it was one of the best decisions. Aside from dropping the average CO2 levels from ~800ppm to ~500ppm, and the tank pH rise, I think we all feel better.

We don’t have an ERV upstairs (but I’m considering adding one), and when coming downstairs the air quality is noticeably different (hard to describe other than “fresh”)

We’re in Texas so this is during the 105 degree summers with AC running. It’s also amazing how quickly things like cooking smells, etc are cleared out.

So although I was trying to improve coral health, I’m pretty sure we all benefited.