*Quick Safe Room Test*
My wife and I live near an old Army base that has been turned over to civilian use recently so they have decided to do a controlled burn of the land to explode any unexploded ordinance. The test was due for some day during the current week so I had no clue when It was going to start. By about 9 AM I noticed a heavy smell of smoke in the area so right away I decided to check the house for anything on fire but this was not the case, the controlled burn was TODAY. This is what I was looking at outside my window, this picture does not do it justice, it was a huge fire.
My first thought was to close all my windows and keep that nasty ash and smoke out, so I did that and when I closed my computer room window here I thought "Perfect time for a safe room test with my new fan. I had tested it for pressure in my safe room but had never tested it to see if it could deal with some serious filter duty. This was my chance. This fan I built was a modified version of one I had seen on this site a while back, and while I had built it I never had a real life chance to check its filtration properties. Guess I should have done an article on it when I made it, but I was in a rush, needless to say its got enough charcoal and HEPA filters in it to really filter out the bad stuff.
The smell of smoke was getting bad, and the traffic on the local ham frequencies said the fire was out of control. Time wire the fan up to a battery I keep charged with a small solar panel,. I quickly taped up my computer room window, cut a small space for the fan and taped around the fan to complicate the seal, It's not airtight but enough to keep the smoke out of the house (Had this been an actual bio emergency trust me, it would have been sealed a whole lot better).
It worked perfect, not even a hint of smoke smell anymore, not
even around the seals of the fan of the fan itself. I have tested it for overpressure in the same room I plan to use here BUT never had a chance to test it for filtration.
Now I have another piece of gear I know works for a fact
Just goes to show you there is always a chance to test your gear.
eXe
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