While they can provide heat, miners have 4 drawbacks:
1) usually no on/off switch
2) not child or pet friendly usually
3) not as cheap as natural gas in some areas for heating
4) Most importantly - hot PCBs and components give off VOCs that pollute the air - these are known carcinogens. 1 miner running 24/7 probably is no worse than new carpet. Having a farm running in a house with no fresh air could cause permanent detrimental health effects.
4) can be solved by an air purifer if you are concerned about VOCs.
Home air purifiers will not filter out the dangerous VOCs. They can ionize and capture free ionized elemental particles - they will not filter out VOCs. You would need a scrubber like those found in respirators or activated filters.
The only solution to this is constantly bringing in clean outside air. The self contained oil based space heaters don't emit much outside of their metal housing.
you are not correct.
most air filters won't do the job . but as a life long asthmatic
these will do everything there is. http://www.iqair.com/home-air-purifiers/gcmultigas/http://www.iqair.com/support/replacementfiltersI also have not 1 not 2 but 3 of them. better then using the inhalers . swapping out the 3 units filters cost me about 1k a year.
ionizers are not for asthmatics as they are very irritating for us.
I watch a demo of a guy in a sealed room with a can of tear gas setoff and a gas mask. they rolled this into the room and in 5 minutes the room cleared from the tear gas. this and another company blue something are far and above normal home use air filters.
That's because those are scrubbers! Those are not the typical $200 home air filters that people buy from Holmes, Oreck or seen on HSN. They are using not only activated charcoal but also potassium permanganate.
I put on a hazmat suit for LA County every 2 months and I also have class 1 asthma. I know my VOCs since I have to update the MSDS for the hospital's emergency response. I had to update it when we do construction and they're using blowtorches or welding equipment, doing ductwork or opening the walls.
I posted about VOCs multiple times since 2011 when I started mining and began worry about them. After lots of research and contacting people in the field I have come to the realization there is nothing you can do about some of the VOCs other than ventilation. Anything that is fat soluable will enter and capture into your body just as fast as it is trapped by the filter.
Check out this - look at page 29. 4 of those cannot be filtered even with conventional scrubbers
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arb.ca.gov%2Fresearch%2Fseminars%2Fmckone%2Fmckone.pdf&ei=4WX9U-yqAoiEiwLb_YGwDw&usg=AFQjCNEHfbHpx-BzUSRjdcMVva4z7wg5Bg&sig2=wQgsF8EMrsLpbn9P6tMZyQ&bvm=bv.74035653,d.cGE