I’m working out the logistics for trialing
triethelyne glycol for pathogen control at a contra dance, and I
need something to put the
liquid
glycol into the air. I’d initially been thinking of using a fog
machine, but after discussion with friends who work in the area it
sounds like an ultrasonic humidifier would work better. Instead of
using heating and cooling, these use vibration, and put out much
smaller droplets.
I got a random cheap humidifier on Amazon ($30) but (a) TEG
is more viscous than the water its designed for and (b) its output is
probably higher than I need. I decided I’d dilute the TEG to resolve
both of these.
First I tested with just water, and I used distilled water because
these humidifiers can turn the minerals in tap water into a fine dust
it’s better not to breathe. I filled the humidifier, weighed it, ran
it for an hour on high, and weighed it again. I measured it losing
122g (2g/min), though this is likely an overestimate: instead of
weighing the whole device before and after (like I did later) I
weighed how much water I poured in (accurate) and then weighed what
was left (inaccurate, due to not all the water coming out).
My goal is a concentration of about 1mg/m3 in a stream of 8,000 CFM of
incoming air. Converting 8,000 CFM to m3/min I get 227 m3/min, so to
put out 1mg/m3 I need 227 mg/min.
If TEG+water behaves similarly to water I should combine six parts
water with one part TEG by mass. But the higher viscosity of TEG
means it vaporizes more slowly, and after some trial and error I
landed on three parts water to one part TEG. In a 60min test I
measured mass decreasing by 56g, which is 0.233g/min (56g / 60min *
25% TEG).
This is way closer to my target (0.233g/min vs 0.227g/min) than I had
any right to expect, and I don’t expect it to be quite this close in
practice.
For the 2025-09-07 dance I’m planning to mix up 3:1 TEG to distilled
water at home, where I have a scale. I’ll want about 300g, so I can
turn it on as soon as we turn on the fan and not worry about running
out.
Note that these figures are all for a large dance hall with thousands
of cubic feet of air coming in every minute. So literally don’t try
this at home: this is way too high a concentration for your living
room.
Calibrating an Ultrasonic Humidifier for Glycol Vapors
Link post
I’m working out the logistics for trialing triethelyne glycol for pathogen control at a contra dance, and I need something to put the liquid glycol into the air. I’d initially been thinking of using a fog machine, but after discussion with friends who work in the area it sounds like an ultrasonic humidifier would work better. Instead of using heating and cooling, these use vibration, and put out much smaller droplets.
I got a random cheap humidifier on Amazon ($30) but (a) TEG is more viscous than the water its designed for and (b) its output is probably higher than I need. I decided I’d dilute the TEG to resolve both of these.
First I tested with just water, and I used distilled water because these humidifiers can turn the minerals in tap water into a fine dust it’s better not to breathe. I filled the humidifier, weighed it, ran it for an hour on high, and weighed it again. I measured it losing 122g (2g/min), though this is likely an overestimate: instead of weighing the whole device before and after (like I did later) I weighed how much water I poured in (accurate) and then weighed what was left (inaccurate, due to not all the water coming out).
Nix fits a photo op into his busy campaign scheduleMy goal is a concentration of about 1mg/m3 in a stream of 8,000 CFM of incoming air. Converting 8,000 CFM to m3/min I get 227 m3/min, so to put out 1mg/m3 I need 227 mg/min.
If TEG+water behaves similarly to water I should combine six parts water with one part TEG by mass. But the higher viscosity of TEG means it vaporizes more slowly, and after some trial and error I landed on three parts water to one part TEG. In a 60min test I measured mass decreasing by 56g, which is 0.233g/min (56g / 60min * 25% TEG).
This is way closer to my target (0.233g/min vs 0.227g/min) than I had any right to expect, and I don’t expect it to be quite this close in practice.
For the 2025-09-07 dance I’m planning to mix up 3:1 TEG to distilled water at home, where I have a scale. I’ll want about 300g, so I can turn it on as soon as we turn on the fan and not worry about running out.
Note that these figures are all for a large dance hall with thousands of cubic feet of air coming in every minute. So literally don’t try this at home: this is way too high a concentration for your living room.