Understanding how an air purifier works is vital in maximizing its benefits in your home.
This is important today, when air pollution is a major threat to our health, especially indoor pollution.
Indoor pollution is about five times greater than outdoor pollution. And it’s a significant cause of asthma, allergies, and other respiratory conditions.
As a result, air purifiers are becoming increasingly popular by the day. People are now aware of the ability of these devices to reduce the threats posed by air pollution indoors.
However, no matter how enticing some air purifiers may seem, it’s worth noting that not all air purifiers live up to their hype and expectations.
So in this article, you’ll learn how these devices clean indoor air and what you should expect from them.
Sources of air pollution indoors
To understand how air purifiers work, you must understand how indoor air pollution occurs.
One of the sources of indoor pollution is impure air from the outside. This polluted air containing dust, smoke, VOCs, and many others inevitably enters your home all the time.
Furthermore, the air inside a room contains dead skin cells that we shed daily and smoke and odors from cooking.
Also, remember that pet dander and hair from your furry friend hover in the air if you have pets.
So, indoor air is a combination of dead skin cells, smoke, pet dander, dust mite, mold, and other airborne particles.
When all these contaminants build up, they seriously risk your health. They can cause respiratory irritations and make breathing difficult.
How does an air purifier work step by step?
The whole process of air purification in an air purifier is initiated by an internal fan.
The fan sets impure air on motion and then sucks in this air before channeling it through a filter or series of filters.
The filters capture harmful contaminants and then release clean air into the room.
This cycle re-occurs until the indoor air is immaculate and fresh. There’re four different types of filters air purifiers use to clean the air.
And most air purifiers use one or more of those filters, arranging them in a specific sequence to effectively remove particles of different sizes.
HEPA Filter: This is a dense mesh of fibers that works by capturing large airborne particles as air flows through it…An incredible thing about this filter is its ability to trap ultrafine airborne particles. A True HEPA filter removes particles down to 0.3 microns in size.
Activated Carbon Filter: Activated Carbon filter is a treated porous medium specially designed to absorb odors and chemical fumes. It absorbs odors, vapors, and gases from smoke, cooking, chemicals, paints, and VOCs.
Ultraviolet Light: This air-cleaning technology utilizes short ultraviolet waves to sterilize the air. The air that passes through the air purifier is exposed to ultraviolet light to inactivate airborne pathogens and microorganisms. This is the only type of air purification technology with a germicidal effect for killing airborne bacteria and viruses in the home.
Ionizer: Ionizer is another method of cleaning the air that works by emitting negatively charged particles into the air. These charges bind to the surface of airborne impurities to form heavy clusters…So these clusters of impurities fall to the ground and surrounding surfaces, where they remain until you clean them up.
Most air purifiers with HEPA and Activated Carbon filters come with a Pre-Filter. Pre-filter removes larger airborne contaminants, thus reducing the stress on HEPA Activated Carbon Filters. And this helps increase their longevity.
For a clear understanding, the animation video by Serge Fx visually illustrates how air purifiers with HEPA filters work.
How air purifier works 3D animation video
Ways to determine the effectiveness of an air purifier
To get an air purifier that effectively works for your space, consider these factors before purchasing one.
Your room’s size: For an air purifier to give optimal performance, it must be correctly sized for the room wherein you want to use it. Hence, you must get the correct square footage of your room, ensuring that it meets or exceeds the air purifier’s specifications.
Air Changes Per Hour: This is the number of times an air purifier changes the air in your room per hour—the more the air changes per Hour (ACH), the more effective the air cleaning process. For example, an air purifier with 5 ACH cleans the air more effectively than one with 2ACH.
CADR Rating: CADR (Clean Air Delivery Rate) is a crucial factor determining air purifier performance in any given space. It measures the amount of clean air an air purifier delivers—the CADR metric scores air purifiers based on their ability to remove smoke, dust, and pollen. The higher the score, the more the device will perform in a particular-sized room.
The type and number of filters in the unit: Air purifiers with many filters tend to be more effective than those with fewer stages of filtration. In addition, the types of filters matter too…For example, HEPA filters are more effective than other types of filters. This is because they have a relatively high CADR. Also, H13 True HEPA filters are rated higher than the regular HEPA particle filter. H13 HEPA filters capture tiny particles lower than 0.3 microns in size.
If you want to learn how to get an air purifier that is correctly sized for your room, click here for my blog post covering air purifier room size and calculating the CADR rating for your space.
How to use an air purifier effectively?
To use an air purifier effectively, you must place the device in the right spot away from any obstructing material like furniture and walls.
You should put it about 12 feet from your wall or any item that impedes air inflow into the machine. This helps to facilitate the air cleaning process.
Also, when using an air purifier, you should close your doors and windows. You don’t want impurities from outside coming in and interfering with the device’s work.
It’ll mess up the cleaning process and lead to an inefficient outcome. Closing your doors and windows enables the air purifier to quickly cover the whole room.
As already stated, the size of your room is one of the determining factors in the performance of your air purifiers.
So in huge rooms, small air purifiers may be underpowered. Therefore, you should use air purifiers to get the desired result.
In addition, to optimize the efficiency of an air purifier, you must monitor its filters regularly to ensure they are not over-saturated with dirt.
And replace them immediately they are due for a replacement.
The best way to maximize the benefits of an air purifier
You need more than just an air purifier to improve your air quality…To maximize the benefits of an air purifier, you should focus on using your unit in combination with your regular cleaning.
This way, you will get the best out of your air purifier.
Here are some of the things you should do to improve your air quality while using an air purifier:
- Clean your carpet or rugs to get rid of dust. Use a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter. Like a HEPA Air purifier, a vacuum cleaner fitted with a True HEPA filter removes 99.97% of particles down to 0.3 microns in size. Using tiles instead of carpets or rugs is a better and cheaper alternative.
- Wash your bedding regularly, at least once weekly, using hot water and detergent. This removes dust and dead skin cells and kills any dust mite present.
- Clean your pets frequently and also brush their hair. This helps prevent pet hair and dander from settling on furniture or floating in the air you breathe.
- Install a dehumidifier to help reduce the moisture levels indoors. However, this is only important if you live in a highly humid environment. High indoor humidity can promote the growth of mold, mild dew, dust mites, and, ultimately, dust which are triggers for people with asthma or allergies.
- Shoes are good at tracking dust into homes. So leave your shoes outside by the door. Using door mats also reduces the dust entering your home trapped under shoes.
- Keep your homes as clean and organized as possible. All unwanted items should be kept outside.
Conclusion
To summarize, air purifiers effectively reduce airborne contaminants in your home. However, it’s important to remember that using an air purifier alone is not to get the job done. Instead, you should use it with other measures such as regular cleaning and keeping good ventilation indoors.
Frequently Asked Questions?
How long does it take for an air purifier to work?
This depends on the size of the air purifiers, as well as the size of the space where you want to use the unit.
Roughly speaking, it takes about 30 minutes to clean the air of a small room. And up to 2 to 3 hours for larger-sized rooms.
Do air purifiers work for allergies?
Air purifiers are designed to capture airborne pollutants that can harm your health.
Air purifiers with True HEPA filters are more effective at this. They trap and remove airborne contaminants, including allergens that cause allergies.
By so doing, air purifiers keep your indoors clean and reduce your exposure to allergy triggers.
And this helps to improve your allergy symptoms.
Do air purifiers get rid of dust?
Yes, they do. If you are looking to get rid of dust in your home, one tool you must have is a True HEPA air purifier.
It removes ultrafine dust house dust as small as 0.3 microns, keeping your air clean and breathable.
Is it good to sleep with an air purifier?
Sleeping with an air purifier can be quite beneficial to anyone…And if you have asthma, allergies, or are immunosuppressed, sleeping with an air purifier will help immensely.
This is because your immune system functions at its lowest when you sleep. This makes you susceptible to attack from allergens or pathogens.
So sleeping with an air purifier helps reduce exposure to harmful air pollutants.