Just spent a day or so cleaning everything in my room of dust.
How do you generally keep the dust away, without tearing everything down every so often?
Electronics and their cords were especially dusty, for some reason.

I use a pellet stove in my home which creates a lot of dust. To overcome this I put dryer sheets under my heating registers to collect it as it passes through the intakes and outputs. Really seems to cut down the dust issue.

ETA- It also make the house smell good.

buy a wife?

A truly courageous post.

I got married!  Mine doubles as a clothes/dish washer.

http://www.amazon.com/Blueair-503-HepaSilent-Air-Purification-System/dp/B002A9JHBW


I have two of these. They work very well. Dust is non existent in our house.

+2 on the Blue air brand.



I need to get another as the motor wore out on mine.

Went at least 5 yrs on being on all the time.



 

How often is "often"?

Do you have any evidence to support that DECREASING the load on an AC motor will cause it to burn up?

I ask because as your filter gets clogged/obstructed it reduces flow, therefore reducing load. Your blower motor will increase speed as flow/load is reduced and as speed increases current decreases... don't believe me? Get out your sweeper (a blower motor is inside) and turn it on. Now, put your hand over the end of the hose to block it off. What happens? The motor goes faster? Get your power meter (I have a kil-a-watt) out and measure the difference with your hand on the end and off the end.

How can less current/more speed kill a motor? The only way I can think of is if the motor actually over-speeds. You can't have that problem with most AC motors (outside of specialized applications)...

Carrier Infinity perfect air purifier or equivalent. What kind of heating system do you have in your house?

How do you run the fan constantly without running the AC or heat constantly as well?  If I switch my fan control from AUTO to ON, I have to switch the Heat/Cool/Off switch to OFF.



 

On most systems/thermostats, there is the fan selector, auto and on. Auto runs when the heat or a/c run and on runs the entire time. If you have a nice ECM variable speed motor it will go to a low continuous fan when system is not running, more efficient than standard 3/4 speed motors.

If the motor is in the air flow, then the lower mass flow rate past the motor absorbs less heat.  Hotter motor = shorter life.

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

There are much less expensive options than that.

It's interesting you bring this up, because I always thought that, say, plugging the hose on a shop-vac would INCREASE the load on the motor.  However, in point of fact you hear the motor speed up when you do this.

Completely wrong.  A 1750 rpm blower motor running on high speed with no load turns 1750 rpm.  The motor and blower wheel are attached to it are designed to move a specific amount of air at a specific external static pressure.  With a load the motor will decrease rpm and generate heat.  Within the designed static pressure the heat build up is dissipated.  A restricted filter or restricted ducting will result in an increased static pressure, increased efficiency loss, and increased heat build up.  The motor amperage will increase, the motor does not speed up, it slows down.

I must be missing something.  I have a modern programmable thermostat, but when I switch the fan to 'ON' and put the other switch to 'COOL' the temperature keeps going down, down, down.  'ON' seems to mean 'System On."



 

I got this today. Works well so far, most of the reviews I've read are pretty positive.

Don't know if you have it or not, but paving my dirt driveway made the biggest difference in home dust and dirt for me.

I installed an Aprilaire 5000 whole-house electronic air filter in April.
The included thermostat has a setting for running the fan to clear the air.
I should get a good indication of its effectiveness this heating season.

You are talking apples and oranges. Vacuum cleaners are usually turbine impeller type and A/C is usually squirrel cage. They are both a centrifugal flow type, but their reduced or blocked air flow characteristics aren't the same.

When you stop air flow through turbine the impeller blades stall and reduce load on the motor.
.

That sucks.

A blackbird pilot should know that, plus how modified ramjet and variable inlet geometry works at mach3+

Very true, and a good point, but the air-flow isn't reduced that much. Unless the filter is completely clogged and there is very little air-flow getting to the motor that's not going to realistically kill the life of the motor. And lets face it, these motors last a lifetime. It's not unusual to see a blower motor still in service from a half-century ago... shave 10% life off of a blower that will last 50 years... your compressor and other parts will be junk and obsolete LONG before you blower goes out.


Yes, blocked air-flow characteristics of the 2 are different, but the principle is the same. Seriously, how stupid do you think I am? Did you think you could come in here with some bullshit response on something you clearly don't know what you're talking about and scare me off or get me to just accept it? A squirrel cage blower will stall out just the same as a turbine impeller does and what happens? Load decreases, speed increases, current draw goes down... it's not magic, it's proven science... you clearly don't know much about blowers and electric motors...


This I won't deny. A clogged filter will reduce overall efficiency of the system. Good airflow is critical to achieve optimal efficiency of an overall HVAC system. And when that HVAC system is running in heat mode a reduced airflow will absolutely lead to increased heat build-up.


But this is absolutely incorrect. As pumping load on the blower is decreased by a blockage the motor speed increases, power consumption decreases. I know the principles may be over your head, but it's not rocket science, it's stuff that's taught in sophomore level engineering classes... For anybody that doesn't understand the principles behind it but just wants to verify that it's true or not, this is SUPER easy to measure. Go get yourself a suirrel-cage blower (you can get them cheap because they typically last forever) and play with it. Measure the current draw at full load (not connected to any duct-work etc) then block it off and measure the draw.

FWIW, every time you see somebody proclaiming that a clogged filter will kill your blower motor 99% of the time they work in the industry and they are trying to drum up more business, or they are just parroting what they heard from their HVAC guy.

There's a book about using plants strategically to keep dust down and air quality up.  Some process used by NASA?  Can't remember the title anymore but always wanted to read it.