Air purifier benefits are massive in this era of industrialization.
And with the current spikes in the number of air pollutants in the atmosphere, an air purifier is a must-have for everyone, especially if you suffer from any form of respiratory disease.
Since your indoor air unavoidably interfaces with the contaminated outdoor air, you must have a protective measure in place in your home against any encroaching pollutants.
Air purifiers are quite effective in curbing air pollutants when they find their way into your home.
They, in fact, reduce your exposure to harmful airborne contaminants. Hence improving your general well-being.
In this article, we’d be going through the benefits of air purifiers to you and your family.
And if you suffer from asthma or allergies or are a pet owner, you should read this…
How do I know if I need an air purifier?
An air purifier becomes handy if you start exhibiting or noticing the following symptoms:
- A stuffy and musty air in your home is a sign that, perhaps, your indoors is contaminated, and you need an air purifier to rescue the situation.
- Suppose you’re constantly sneezing, especially indoors. In that case, it’s an indication that you need to purify your air; an air purifier can help.
- Also, if dust and dust mites infest your home, you need an air purifier to improve your indoor air quality. So, here’s an article that teaches you for free how to remove dust and dust mites from your home’s air.
- Loud snoring is also a sign of increased air pollution. An air cleaner can help reduce congestion in your airways by reducing exposure to mold spores, pollen, and dander.
- Also, if you or your family members are continuously falling ill and showing symptoms of allergies. In that case, harmful mold particles in the air need to be removed. And an air purifier can handle this.
Do air purifiers actually work?
Air purifiers do work. But it’s worth mentioning that not all air purifiers can remove every kind of impurities in the air.
Some are more effective than others.
And that’s a fact.
The effectiveness boils down to the type of filtration system and the air purifier’s technology.
Air filters are designed to remove gaseous elements or particulate matter, but not both.
An air purifier that uses a HEPA filter removes 99.97% of airborne particles down to 0.3 microns.
These contaminants include pet dander, pollen, dust, smoke, and other particulate matter.
And if the air purifier uses an activated carbon filter, it would filter off chemical fumes, unpleasant odors, and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).
However, if you want something more potent than air filters. In that case, you’d need an air purifier that uses ultraviolet light or an air purifier with a similar technology. Ultraviolet light destroys microorganisms at their core.
So if you wish to reduce your exposure to indoor air pollution, installing an air purifier in your home is your best option.
Should I sleep with the air purifier on?
Yes, you should. An air cleaner helps you achieve perfect sleep by cleansing your air of all harmful impurities, such as mold spores, dust, and dirt.
Besides, they create a cozy environment that makes sleeping easier and more comfortable.
Not to mention that if this becomes a habit, it provides significant health benefits in the long run.
6 Benefits of Air Purifiers in the home
Air purifiers greatly help a household, and the benefits are categorized and explained as follows:
Air Purifiers benefit for allergies
Usually, untreated air contains harmful elements that can trigger an allergic reaction once inhaled.
Allergic reactions are the worst form of illness one could experience because they come with constant sneezing, coughing, and itchy and watery eyes, making daily life a real struggle.
Over time, repeated exposure to allergens can weaken your immune system and impact your general well-being.
But do air purifiers work for allergies?
If you have an air purifier with a True HEPA filter, you will experience fewer allergy symptoms.
This is because a HEPA filter is designed to trap tiny airborne impurities, which include dust, pet dander, pollen, mold spores, and all contaminants down to 0.3 microns.
Once the air cleaner is of the right size to cover the correct square footage of your room, it effectively reduces all airborne allergies.
Therefore, air purifiers are the perfect tools for improving your allergy symptoms.
Air Purifiers benefits for asthma
Asthma is a condition wherein the bronchi experience spasms resulting in difficulty breathing.
According to experts, in many cases, this medical condition is a direct result of an allergic reaction.
Our homes are exposed to airborne pollutants daily, which harm our health and can trigger asthma flare-ups.
The quality of your indoor air is a determining factor in the frequency of asthma episodes you experience.
So the key to effectively managing your asthma is to focus on eliminating harmful gases, particulate matter, allergens, and bad smells that may have compromised your air quality.
And this is the job of an air purifier.
Air Purifiers with HEPA filters are ideal for asthmatics as they eliminate airborne ultrafine particles.
The mesh in a HEPA filter is there to trap harmful airborne particles that may trigger an asthmatic or allergic reaction.
Furthermore, most air purifiers are equally focused on mitigating chemical triggers and VOCs from the air, leaving your atmosphere clean and breathable, with no fears of asthma flares.
Air Purifier benefits for babies
Air purifiers are highly beneficial to babies, although no study shows that air use boosts newborns’ immunity.
However, air purifiers have been shown to help newborns allergic to dust mites and other allergens.
Babies are born with immature and underdeveloped immune systems and organs and, as a result, are highly susceptible to attack from air pollutants.
Therefore, you must keep the air around your babies clean. An air purifier with a True HEPA filter is handy in such situations.
A HEPA Air Purifier benefits babies’ health by trapping ultrafine dirt particles from indoor air, thus reducing their susceptibility to breathing problems.
Generally, air purifiers are safe for babies, but this depends on the type of purifier.
Beyond being safe, using the right kind of air purifier goes a long way in minimizing the chances of your baby catching respiratory problems and other airborne diseases.
Babies are so susceptible to respiratory diseases and allergies. So if you can get an air purifier for your baby’s room, it makes excellent sense.
Now you might wonder what air purifier is unsafe and what is the right type for your baby.
It’s worth mentioning that Ozone generators and ionizer air purifiers, though effective in eliminating biological air contaminants, should never be used around babies.
These are the worst air purifiers since they irritate the airways and aren’t safe for use in nurseries.
Air Purifier benefits for a car
Car air purifiers are excellent devices for maintaining your car’s indoor air quality.
According to research, a good air filter in your car provides acceptable air quality, which is needed when you drive.
Most importantly, a car air purifier can be very beneficial when there’s severe outdoor pollution, if you suffer from allergic reactions, or travel with your pets in your car.
Furthermore, if the source of the pollution is your car, such that it accumulates dust, some funky or musty odors, and even pet dander, a simple cleaning of the vehicle at the source may only partially address the problem.
A car air purifier will do the trick in eliminating those smells and air contaminants.
Additionally, suppose you have a car where you dwell for lengthy periods, such as a caravan, a heavy haul truck, or a camper. Then, you’d need to keep the air quality at its best to avoid getting sick.
An air purifier would really help in such situations. However, some cars have a built-in cabin filter, while others have a built-in ionic air purifier.
If so, you may not need a car air purifier at all. But if your car air filter doesn’t work or has no air filter.
In this case, an air purifier is essential to eliminate contamination and supply the much-needed air circulation required in your vehicle.
Another example is if your car air filter is designed to capture something other than ultrafine impurities. In that case, you’d need a car air purifier.
Air Purifier benefits for skin
Polluted air contains chemical molecules and other impurities that cause respiratory and many skin problems.
There’re a few studies on air pollution and skin. However, the research reveals that poor-quality air badly affects your skin, causing Skin blemishes, acne, eczema, and others, including an accelerating aging process.
Additionally, the air also contains harmful free radicals. These reactive oxidative agents attack your DNA and speed up aging.
The process doesn’t occur instantaneously, but aging is a cumulative effect of the free radicals’ damage over time.
So this means you have time to mitigate the process and prevent the deterioration of your skin.
An air purifier mops out and dramatically reduces the number of free radicals and pollution from the air indoors.
This improves your air quality tremendously, and by so doing, it retards your skin’s aging process, making your skin look good and without infection and blemishes.
If you need to improve your skin quality, then you need to include an air purifier in your skincare routine.
Air purifier benefits for pet owners
Pets are lovely creatures and fun-loving companions. Hence, it’s always heartbreaking to let go of our furry friends because of allergies.
But pets can scatter their hair and spread their odors around the house. And this can negatively impact your health.
In addition, they can trigger an asthma flare-up or an allergic reaction. The truth is that an air purifier can significantly assist in eliminating those pet’s impurities.
But they must include specific essential components.
If you want to eliminate pet odors, you’d need an air purifier with an Activated Carbon filter. It’s the best filter type to absorb smells from pets.
Similarly, an air purifier helps soothe your pet’s allergies, then you use one with a HEPA filter. HEPA filters are the best to remove 0.3-sized particles from the air, including pet dander.
Finally, if you wish to eliminate pet hairs, using an air purifier with a Pre-filter or HEPA filter will work fine.
However, opting for an air purifier with all the filters above would be best. This ensures every kind of pet impurities is eradicated from your indoor air.
7 more benefits of Air Purifiers
- Air purifiers are beneficial in getting the air rid of cancer-causing compounds such as VOCs and chemical fumes in the air.
- Also, air cleaners are energy-efficient and faster for ventilating your home.
- An air purifier benefits smokers a great deal by readily absorbing the smell of smoke from tobacco or cigarettes from their homes, helping to maintain an odorless atmosphere.
- Air Purifiers tend to cover a large area in the house, making cleaning easier.
- Furthermore, air purifiers help increase your HVAC system filters’ longevity by reducing the burden on them.
- Air purifiers improve our air quality with less exposure to allergens, which translates to cleaner air which helps you sleep better.
- Lastly, Air Purifiers in the bedroom offer immense benefits to your health. By reducing your exposure to airborne impurities in the bedroom, they help you to get healthy and comfortable sleep.
What are the disadvantages of Air purifiers?
- Air purifiers are the best devices for achieving optimal indoor air quality. But it’s also undeniable that some air purifiers, especially ionic air purifiers, can be harmful to one’s health, as they tend to generate ozone, a major irritant to the lungs.
- Even though air purifiers are effective, they aren’t 100% efficient. As machines that they are, they are prone to wear and tear. And this may result in the underperformance of the device over time. As a result, they may be unable to remove smells or even fail at eliminating microorganisms.
- Maintenance cost is a big drawback for some air purifiers. This is because the efficiency of the significant parts of these air cleaners decreases with time. Consequently, the performance of the device drops significantly. Cleaning and replacing the filters can be costly and add to the overhead maintenance cost.
- HEPA filters, over time, can accumulate microorganisms. And if left untreated, the air purifiers can release these microbes into the air wreaking havoc on your respiratory system.
- Additionally, some air cleaners use filters in combination with UV light. But it’s a fact that some air filters combined with Ultraviolet technology split water and oxygen to form hydroxyl and ozone. And so these by-products react with the contaminants in the air and become even more harmful.
For more benefits and drawbacks on the use of air purifiers, here’s my blog post that covers all you need to know about air purifier advantages and disadvantages
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, Air Purifiers offer enormous health benefits that improve our general well-being.
An air purifier with a True HEPA filter drastically reduces the amount of asthma and allergy triggers in your home. This improves indoor air quality and enables you to live a healthy life.