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Best Home Office Air Handling Option?

JHolmes763

JHolmes763

Drinkin' the koolaid
Joined
Oct 12, 2006
Messages
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I've built a 12x14 home office in the garage that I'll be working out of. And, surprise, smoking in. :)

What are your thoughts on air / smoke handling options? I'm in Michigan, and although it'll be insulated, I'm worried that just a couple air vents in the ceiling will take all my heat (and eventually A/C) out of the room. The heat exchange units I found looked nice, but run several hundred dollars.

Is a smoke eater enough, so that I don't need to vent the room? Not that those are cheap, either. I called smokeeaters.org and they recommended the SmokeMuncher XL, which runs $850 and $400 in filters every 1-2 years. A previous thread on here mentioned the Trion SE 400E, which will run about $1000, but doesn't have any filters to replace. I imagine cleaning that thing isn't as easy as a dunk in the sink, though.

At what point is it overkill for that small of a room? Usually it'll just be me, but there'd be some card nights, too.

Is there an option I'm missing? Or is it just a matter of how much do I want to spend? If so, I'm leaning towards just the smoke eater.

-John
 
I've done some research on this.
I had found this, and some of his other videos, helpful.

 
Good videos. Thank you for the link. I think I remember you discussing this a while ago.

What did you end up going with?

I do have a dedicated room. It's literally a box right now. Two outside walls and two inside (the garage) walls. Any air I pull in is going to be pretty cold right now.
 
I have a RabbitAir MinusA2 in my 10x10 mancave. It works very well...can clear out the smoke within a minute or two and it doesn't require an outside vent. It kicks on when it detects odor, and turns off when the odor is negated. It's a bit less than the two options you mentioned (@$550), though you will need to buy new filters about once a year (@80). For the room size you've described, I think it would work well for you. I love mine.

Here's a link: http://www.rabbitair.com/pages/minusa2-air-purifier

Edit to add: I initially went with an external vent fan, but found myself freezing. It only worked with an open window and that got old (and cold) quickly. Ergo, the search that led me to the RabbitAir. Another thing to consider is NOISE. A noisy unit will drive you nuts. Another reason to consider the RabbitAir. It's a very quiet unit.
 
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I bought the "Lightning". It works pretty good at removing odor. I was considering a much more expensive unit, but I paid about $175.00 at the county fair, of all places.
Was the last day and I guess the seller needed to get some cash flow.
 
Vent on card night... very good point. I'll put one in regardless.
 
JHolmes763 said:
That looks similar to the SmokeMuncher in my original post. Replacement filters may be cheaper.
Click to expand...
SmokeMuncher is the smaller version, designed for @400 sf.. Both are from Airpura. I have had mine for 2 years, and just replaced the pre- filter for about $20... Very economical.
 
So, as I understand it, we'really roving the smoke from an indoor area with the aforementioned machines.

How well do they do at odor removal, assuming tile floors, no drapes, or other fabrics to absorb the smoke?

I'd be very curious to turn my office into a lounge, but I love a lot and don't want to hurt the resale value of the home...
 
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