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Retro-fitting HEPA filter in Model Y
- Thread starter LargeHamCollider
- Start date
adewinne
Member
So, if it's going to be a Tesla direct upgrade, does that mean that the user interface gets an upgrade to 'turn on' bio defence mode??
MY1stEV
Member
Yes, there is a button for it that would show up after Tesla installs the retrofit and updates your configuration.
Right! Everyone needs to take a moment and think about why Tesla is making the HEPA filters so large..... they NEED to be that large to still allow the same volume of air because of the more restrictive filter.
Tha_Ape
Active Member
That doesnt make any sense though. Sounds like they're not HEPA filters. HEPA filters restrict flow in order to trap particles that regular filters let by. Its like saying you put a screen on a sewer grate and got more water to flow through it. Its not gonna happen.
Midnightsun
Active Member
There is no way in hell that a hepa filter will have better flow than the original. Installing a much finer filtering material will definitely decrease flow no matter how you slice or dice it. You need to ignore some of that false advertising.
This is also a very common mistake made on central furnaces in a home. This explains it fairly well. Why High-Performance Furnace Filters May Ruin the Blower
That's generally true, but it's not an absolute.
As an extreme example, I could make a "filter" by taking a four square foot piece of plywood and drilling four or five 1/32" holes in it. It meets the definition of being a filter (letting air pass, but not things above a certain size). It's clearly not HEPA with 1/32" holes, but it also doesn't flow well at all because the holes are such a tiny fraction of the overall surface area. A standard HEPA furnace filter of the equivalent 4ft^2 size would flow dramatically better (and of course would filter better too).
HEPA only indicates how small of particles are blocked from passing through. It says absolutely zero about the composition of the material, or what percentage of the material's structure (or surface area) is permeable to air. That's why it's technically possible for a HEPA filter of one brand/type/composition to flow better than a non-HEPA filter of another.
Think about it this way. Imagine our filter is a screen - a traditional window screen made of a mesh of wires. The filtration particle size is dictated by the size of the open space between the wire edges.
If we double the thickness of the wires, but keep the size of the openings the same, then our screen will still filter the same size particles, but will flow worse, as a larger percentage of the surface area is blocked by wire.
Conversely, we could halve the thickness of the wires and maintain the same size of the openings. This would increase the air flow rate through the screen, as less of the screen surface area is blocked by wire. But it still "filters" to the same level as the hole sizes are exactly the same, blocking the same size particles.
Given the right materials and engineering, it's possible to make HEPA filters that flow fairly well. And given the wrong materials (or simple production economics of the way the filters are manufactured), it's quite possible to make a Non-HEPA filter that doesn't flow well.
And again, just so it isn't misread- I'm only saying that it is possible for a HEPA filter to out-flow a non-HEPA, so that claim isn't immediately BS. But it would take a particularlly good (and likely expensive to manufacture) HEPA filter, and a particularly lousy non-HEPA filter by comparison to make that happen.
Our new MY has the Bio Defense/HEPA feature. The filter is huge. While $500 is a lot of coin the filter is surely a big part of the cost. The latest software update has added the ability to turn on Bio Defense from the App. Super convenient if you live in an area suffering from wildfire smoke or crop dust.
If you only use Bio Defense occasionally I'm guessing it will last years before needing replacement.
If you only use Bio Defense occasionally I'm guessing it will last years before needing replacement.
We had this issue in my wife’s Y. I bought the Kool It Evaporator cleaner. I also replaced the filters with the Hepa filters from Tesla Offer. The smell is gone.
Tha_Ape
Active Member
Tesla published a video on YouTube yesterday promoting HEPA filtering in Model Y. Made me so jealous since my Model Y was built literally a week before HEPA filters were added to Model Ys. Can't say that I really need one since I'm not asthmatic, and I lived without it in other cars whole life, but I have fantasies about being able to drive on empty streets during forest fire season this summer.
Sawyer Merritt on twitter "confirmed" a long time ago that Model Y's would have a retrofit kit available... but he hasn't said anything since and he's ignored every tweet I've made to him asking for him to try to get an update from his "contacts." I suggest we all start to tweet him asking for an update, maybe then he'll follow through instead of ignoring. He absolutely makes money off his following from posting "breaking news" about Tesla on twitter... the least he can do is try to get any follow up info or amplify our voices by trying to tweet Elon about it.
I'm very interested but the idea of paying probably $500 to have an air filter that needs to be replaced at the cost of $500 is hurting my financial sensibilities. Especially when when the standard one running on recirculate seems good.
whisperingshad
Active Member
This filters even when not on biohazard mode as long as its not on re-circulate