Air purifier 30 USD exceeds the device thousands of dollars. It makes both famous global startup.

A little while ago, Quora raised a very good question, which attracted many interesting answers. The question itself is very ordinary and a...

A little while ago, Quora raised a very good question, which attracted many interesting answers. The question itself is very ordinary and almost everywhere can be applied: "Life tips - Life hack should anyone know?"

In the midst of the answer, there is a bright spot that is very close to us and it is also very practical in an era of air and dust. That is the "golden heart" of Thomas Talhelm, assistant professor of Behavioral Science. He is the founder of the Smart Air startup that has designed effective air filters at low prices.

Here is the content of Thomas's answer:

This is the tip I made in my bedroom. After that luck came, it found the home of 40,000 families in China and India. At first, I was just trying to solve the problem of myself.

I have a very severe cough. And the air outside my bedroom door looks like this:


I am living in the "end of the air" scene between Beijing. I finally understood why the winter of that year, I had coughs and colds every week.

The Guardian reports on the alarming pollution situation in Beijing.

I think this problem is also simple. We can buy an air purifier. Until you see the air purifier that people still spread through each other's ears, it costs up to 2,000 USD!


Even cheap machines cost up to $ 500. I am a poor student, spending money on psychology research, getting financial resources to decorate my bedroom with an expensive air purifier.

But I personally smelled of scams. Is it true that the air purification system costs thousands of dollars?
This is when I can risk my assertion that I have researched this issue in depth. But honestly, if I say that, it's just that I'm exaggerating. All the information I found is already available on the Wikipedia page.

Link to HEPA, performance indicators of an air filtration system. It stands for absorption of airborne particles with high efficiency.

- A HEPA filter will store 99% of dust particles of size less than 0.3 micrometers.



- The HEPA filter was invented in the 40s.
- Its inventor does not register copyright. So anyone can make their own air purifier.
- The price is very cheap, because the filter material is synthetic fiber. It is no different from the fabric of a shirt or fabric used to make backpacks.


By the way, I am studying abroad in China and have a favorable geographical factor. I found a factory that produces HEPA filters. Order to door with price of 15 USD and attach to home fan.


It is not very beautiful. Since there is nowhere to hang the air purifier, I use a tape measure to tie two things together.


I have in hand all the essential ingredients of an air purifier. So in theory it will have to work. But is it really working?
I spent $ 30 to make the filter, and tried to hook up another $ 300 to buy a laser airborne particle cleaner (this is the cheapest model I can find) .


The step is not very wise, but I want to confirm my discovery. After 5 weeks of running the fan, the amount of dust on the filter is quite significant.


But I want to know if the air purifier catches ultra-fine dust particles that can go deep into human lungs. Measuring equipment worth 300 USD will help me answer that question.

This is the result of my air purifier, when I turned it on in the bedroom for more than 8 hours.

I kept trying new equipment, for a hundred days, in a room with a strict control system. I use a more powerful fan to cope with air purifiers coming from big vendors - what I borrow from wealthier friends. Then I also gathered enough data to confirm that I was successful. The $ 30 homemade air purifier is capable of filtering out the majority of micro dust in my bedroom.

I want to tell the world that thousands of dollars worth of filtering machines are phishing. I have opened the source of all the data I have, all the testing methods I do. I wrote instructions on how to make an air purifier.

I thought only a few people who often travel to pay attention to this product. But it turns out that the number of people facing the problem of dirty air is more than I thought!


On a beautiful day, I found The Atlantic published an article about my little air purifier.


And then Bloomberg is also eyeing.


And this is my face ...

I find my trick simple too. But gradually getting the emails written in confusion. “I didn't find that kind of fan! Can I use this fan instead? "

Then "Good idea, but I'm too lazy, don't want to make one myself!"

So I and my two friends set up a website, taking responsibility for transferring the air purifiers we made to all over China. We named the project Smart Air.

That is the story of 6 years ago. At this point, I have been able to transfer cheap fake air purifiers to 40,000 people across China.

Because not only China faces air pollution. We launch the Smart Air program in India, Mongolia and the Philippines. I am trying to raise funds to run a low-cost global air filter project.

During that time, I completed my Master's degree, my daily job is still a psychologist. I'm not an expert in air pollution. I'm just a stubborn nerd who has a problem, then finds out that it's not just me who scratches my head with that problem.

I didn't expect that my home-made project could find its way to people's homes. Perhaps the bookworm also has its advantages.
Wish you safe breathing!

Reference from Thomas's share

Mr. Nerd