What is an Air Purifier?
Air Purifiers are very quickly becoming our home's new cleaning device with many of us realising we have been suffering needlessly from the effects of Hayfever, Pet and Dust Allergies and other airborne particles. The correct Air Purifier can remove a multitude of pollutants from the air including dust mites, mould spores, pet dander and dust and VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), odours, bacteria and viruses.
In it’s simplest form, an air purifier is a fan with a filter or range of filters combine together in a single unit. The fan moves air in through the filter/s, the filter/s traps particles, such as dust, pollen, dust mite residues, pet dander and so on, and the fan moves the newly purifier air around the room.
It’s ultimately a hoover for the air you breathe!
Typically, filters are made of paper, fiber or mesh, and require regular replacement to maintain efficiency.
Air Purifiers offer a range of filter techniques, often with multiple levels of filtration in a single unit, offering a high quality purification of air inside your home.
You can choose the right Air Purifiers to suit your needs - Air Purifiers for Allergies, Traffic Pollution, Asthma etc.
How does a Air Purifier filter particles out?
It's all about the filtration method and the quality of filters!
The best air purifiers for home use will contain a True HEPA filter.
HEPA stands for high-efficiency particulate air (filter) and it’s a paper-like filter made from lots and lots of tiny interwoven fibres. Those fibres are woven so closely that large particles can’t get through, but air can – so the air passes through the filter and comes out the other side with many of its impurities removed.
A True HEPA filter has a 99.97% efficiency rate of filtering airborne particles that are as small as 0.3 microns.
Dust, pollen and dander particles are all much bigger than that.
‘HEPA Like’ filters have a 99% efficiency rate of filtering airborne particles that are as small as 2 microns.
Some air purifiers supplement their HEPA filter with an ioniser. That fills the air with negatively charged ions and their job is to attract positively charged particles, such as dust and dander. When they bump into those particles, each pair of positive and negative particles becomes a single, larger particle – and larger particles are much easier for the filters to trap.
Can Air Purifier filter everything?
No home air purifier can remove everything unpleasant from the air and some cope better with some things than with others. Large particles, such as pollen and dust, are fairly easy to filter out, which makes the best air purifiers for dust and the best air purifiers for allergies an effective choice. But Volatile Organic compounds (VOCs) or gases such as those produced from cigarette smoke are too small for HEPA filters to trap them effectively. If you need to reduce those kinds of particles, you’ll need an air purifier with activated carbon filters.
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
Activated carbon
Activated carbon removes gases from the air
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.
What is CADR Rating for and Air Purifier?
CADR, the Clean Air Delivery Rate is a metric that was developed as a way of measuring the performance of residential air purifiers. The CADR rating reflects the volume of air in CFM (cubic feet per minute) that is cleaned of particles of certain sizes.
To measure the effectiveness in removing different particle sizes, three types of particles are tested: smoke, pollen and dust. These represent small, medium and large sized particles. Each is measured and assigned it’s own CADR score.
How do I choose the right Air Purifier?
What are you trying to achieve?
Are you looking to help with a specific allergy or requirement?
- Air Purifiers for Dust Allergies
- Air Purifiers for Chemical Sensitivity (Volatile Organic Compounds) - Look for Activated Carbon Filtration
- Air Purifiers for Pet Allergies
- Air Purifiers for Smoke and Odours
- Air Purriifers for Traffic Pollution - look for activated Carbon Filtration
All of The Air Shop Air Purifiers can help with these allergies
Here are some common considerations to help you choose the right air purifier;
- Make sure it's the right size purifier for your room/space - most will advise the maximum recommended room size
- Air Changes Per Hour - How effectice is the performance of the air purifier - the more times it changes the air per hour, the better
- Revew the filtration process - is it True HEPA or 'HEPA Like' and does it have any other
- Are there any other certifications? e.g. - Allergy UK, Asthma UK
- Controls and Settings - Are you looking for