Show HN: I built an under-the-door fan duct to lower bedroom CO2
41 bizzz 18 6/24/2025, 2:17:28 PM lepekhin.com ↗
Hi HN,
This is my attempt to fix groggy mornings by lowering my bedroom CO2 from 1700 ppm to ~900 ppm.
I designed a simple, 3D-printed fan duct that directs air under the door to improve air circulation.
A note on the design process: I used CadQuery, a Python library for creating parametric 3D models. I didn't know tools like this existed and highly recommend it if you can program; it turned out to be more convenient than manually iterating on prototypes in a GUI.
The project is open source and the post explains the full build. Happy to answer any questions.
Nice to wake up and see a hacker news post benefiting from our open source air monitor designs, especially with the original design that we started with so many years ago! Makes me realize how much AirGradient developed since these early days.
Did you consider linking the fan with the CO2 data and making this a demand controlled system? Like you control the speed (or just switch on / off the fan) based on CO2 levels?
I think this could have a few advantages in terms of energy savings, noise level etc.
- With positive pressure, the intake air doesn't pick up contaminants from the wall cavities and other nooks and crannies within the building envelope.
- A fresh air supply fan can be fitted with a high-quality filter (HEPA or near-HEPA) to supply air with approximately zero PM2.5. (This is a very, very effecive way to get indoor air that is cleaner than the outdoor air without substantial power consumption.)
- You can open the door without moving the fan! You can leave it on with the door open! And it may improve the air quality in the rest of the living space more than the under-the-door scheme.
In a very cold climate, it might make more sense to put something like this in a different room so that the unconditioned supply air could be mixed with conditioned indoor air farther from where anyone is trying to sleep.
For what it's worth, there are a couple vendors of paired decentralized ERVs that alternate which one is supply and which one is exhaust and blow all the air through energy recovery cores that buffer both temperature and humidity. They're intended to be installed in holes in the walls, but it ought to be possible to fit them to windows or trickle vents with some creativity to operate them without any permanent modifications to the structure. In a climate with serious weather, energy recovery can substantially improve comfort and efficiency compared to using unconditioned supply air.
You probably need to make sure you use a fan that creates enough pressure to get the air through the trickle vent as well as a filter. A duct fan might be more suitable than a PC fan for this.
Might be simpler to augment your fresh air intake with a fan.
900 is still quite high though - upper end of normal for indoor
Anyway, I think there are plenty of people who do not want to open windows and still have fresh air. But the amount of people who can't modify their room or for whatever reasons don't want to open their bedroom door is bound to be much less.
Now I'm curious, why don't you open your bedroom door? Me, I'm a light sleeper and other apartment dwellers will wake me up if I open the door.
Just kidding. But would you mind sharing what you find so compelling about CadQuery?
As a mechanical person, these code to CAD tools make as much sense to me as suggesting you should write programs with a compass and straight edge.