What type of Air Purifier is needed for Hayfever and common dust allergies?
Choosing an air purifier with a HEPA filter will help aleviate allergies and irritations associated with pollen, dust and fine dust. HEPA which standard or High Efficiency Particulate Air is a pleated filter designed to capture 99.97% of particles larger than 0.3 microns. This includes pollen particles and dust particles which are commonly larger.
Be sure to choose a TRUE HEPA filter as this will provide much higher filtration of particles that cause your allergies. HEPA 'like' filters do not manage particles as 0.3 micros, infact they usually only have a performance of 99% of particles above 2 microns in size.
Remember, the filter is only effective if it is regularly checked, hooevered and replaced. Just like your hoover filter, it can't do it's job if it's clogged!
More information:
Types of air filters and filtration in air purifiers;
How they work and what they target
High-efficiency particulate air (HEPA)
Fibrous media air filters remove particles from the air including pollen, dust and dust mites
Activated carbon
Activated carbon removes gases from the air including VOC's from cleaning products and diesel particulate from cars/pollution
Ionizer
This uses a high-voltage wire or carbon brush to remove particles from the air. The negative ions interact with the air particles, causing them to attract to the filter or other objects in the room
Electrostatic precipitation
Similar to ionizers, this uses a wire to charge particles and bring them to the filter
Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI)
UV light inactivates microbes. This doesn’t pull out the microbes from the space entirely — it only inactivates them
Photoelectrochemical oxidation (PECO)
This newer technology removes very small particles in the air by making a photoelectrochemical reaction that removes and destroys pollutants.